place to live everyday. The took away farm subsidiaries and now they have four times the output. No more patenting ideas that you will never try to build and sell, only to sue some other poor soul who's trying to make his life better. Not to mention the climate of NZ looks quite appealing.
Imagine where touch tech would be today if some dipshit in the 80's hadn't locked it up in patents? The touch tech of the movies could already be common place.
Maybe you've just got to set up a "shell corporation" in NZ. If for example you wanted to found an online store with one-click checkout. Set up a holding company in NZ to carry your software licenses, then use the web page to serve orders globally?
Of course it's more complex than that... but not nearly as complicated as moving there.
There's no way the legal expenses cost $16M in *REAL* money. RIAA uses internal lawyers. In fact, RIAA is just lawyers. They're paying themselves and once again, screwing the artists.
I mean seriously, to the "editor" who posted this (kdawson) would it kill you to put an ounce of fucking critical thinking into it before you post?
I'm sorry... I know this must come off as a "troll"... maybe I'm reading too much slashdot or something.
No, there isn't. There is only one answer, and it is "no". And that answer is the only correct one for one simple reason, Blizzard was losing customers over the announcement. If the customers will stop using your product over a decision, you made the wrong decision. Nobody was going to START using WoW because they went to real names on fora. NOBODY. Therefore, it was stupid.
You're drawing conclusions without any data.
There were definitely people complaining on the forum, but you have no proof of people actually quitting the game (in significant numbers).
I would contest that people don't play WOW primarily for the forum interactions. People complaining might have simply stopped posting on forums and continued to play the game. Maybe they'd look for third party (guild) forums where they could still remain anonymous.
You can't say that it actually cost them any money at all. As it stands, you'll also never know. They clearly have backed off the real-name-only idea.
Again, we disagree, you DON'T LIKE the idea of Real Name Only foums, and I DO like the idea.
Your opinion may be more populist or it could be one held by a vocal minority. It's possible that the vast majority of Blizzard customers never visit the WOW forum and couldn't give a toss.
Considering the 10 million wow subscribers I'd expect that the WOW forum browsing population was significantly less than that. If it doesn't affect them and they stay silent. If the people who agree stayed silent (ish) and the people who were opposed were so vehemently opposed that they foamed at the mouth with rage... well the choice isn't hard to make.
It still doesn't make it a black and white issue.
There are many other possibilities outside of the single conclusion that you've drawn. I still think it is a good idea. I'd still prefer it. I don't think it's important though. So I'll not get upset if they don't do it.
What's more is that this application will bring programming "back" the the masses.
I'm a (former) high school teacher myself, and I'm getting near jitters thinking about how fired up my kids would get if they could program their own mobile phone app with the same ease of making a Powerpoint Presentation (younger students *LOVE* making powerpoint, quite often "reward time" would be "if you're all good, I'll let you make a powerpoint about whatever you want")
Think about how amazing it would be to teach a whole year class about creating an App for your phone. "Think of a problem that needs solving" - what buttons do you need? what do the buttons have to do? now draw the screens on paper, now draw the buttons in the interface... now here's how we add "actions" to the buttons.
Want to do something that's more complex? Maybe we need to look "behind the design, at the code"
How many people here grew up on the Apple ][ or on BASIC programs for the C64?
This is fucking revolutionary! What a great time to be alive!
If you want to have an honest GLBT discussion, why are you having it on the WoW boards? That's not being flippant - if I were going to have a discussion about any serious, mature topic, I would consider posting it amongst the flotsam of the WoW boards to be an exercise in futility, lost amongst a sea of uninformed one-liners and arrogant diatribes. On a RealID-backed board, I might not suggest you start a post outing yourself as gay, but I'm not sure I would bother starting ANY discussion on the WoW boards as they stand now.
My initial reaction was to agree with this... but on further consideration, I think it's the audience / demographic that really needs a safe place to discuss those topics:
1) anonymous
2) introverted
3) teenage
4) safe from ridicule
5) comfortable
6)...
Yes, WOW might not seem like the ideal place to worldly adults, but to a small town / high school teen it might be their whole world. Or at the very least the only place they can be truly honest.
Most of all it seems a case of "Any port in a storm"... if it saves a life right ? (I'm not even being overdramatic here, gay teens are said to be 4 times more likely to commit suicide http://gaylife.about.com/od/gayteens/a/gaysuicide.htm)
The pros and cons on both sides of this debate are compelling. Blizzard's time, money, and "quality of product (the forums)" versus people's privacy.
Not sure why it had to be "either/or". I think they should have rolled out Real-ID-only forums in parallel and let people choose for themselves.
In the end I think Blizzard waited too long. "Serious" WoW-related discourse doesn't happen on Blizzard's forums anymore. Most serious players know to start at elitistjerks.com. Not that their forums are perfect, but if I want good info on class mechanics, gear, talents, rotations... that's where I go.
There's a difference between making a mistake and doing something that anyone with more than a room temperature IQ should immediatley understand to be an insanely stupid idea.
And I'm talking room temperature in Celcius, not Kelvin.
I thought it was a great idea. Though it's apparently controversial.
There was a great article in "What the Dog Saw" about Ketchup. In it, he describes the fact that there's basically only one ketchup. That's because it's a perfect flavour. Anyone who tries anything else might say "yeah that's good... but it's not ketchup".
Mustard on the other hand, has many flavours, whole grian, dijon, french's... and so on. That's because a certain portion of the population likes the texture of the grain, or the heat of the dijon. In fact they prefer that choice over the other possible choices. There's room for more than one mustard.
Similarly, there's room for more than one answer to the question of "Should Blizzard Forums Use Real Names"
Except that she will have missed out on a number of opportunities for bonus level ups. I would totally blow through this stuff except for the experience & paragon points....
I have never owned or even driven one save for a golf cart. My experience with the golf cart leaves me doubt as to whether an electric car can deliver enough torque to climb steep inclines.
Heck, what happens when you are stuck in snow all the while, the spinning of wheels eating away at your juice? Scary, isn't it?
I have never owned or even driven one save for an RC Racer. My experience with the RC Racer leaves me doubt as to whether people can actually even fit inside an electric car let alone get one around the track when the little pointy electricity stick pokes out of the groove on the ground. That happens a lot when you go round corners real fast.
Heck, what happens when you are stuck in snow all the while, the spinning of wheels attracts a herd of angry velocoraptors and they eat you? Scary, isn't it?
Electric cars are not golf carts. They will not be engineered to overcome the issues faced by people too lazy or slow to walk around the golf course, but to overcome issues faced by people who want to drive, on roads, in various conditions.
ha ha. thanks:) Personally, I think it's a lot more informative than "read about Biliski here..." (and to an href that apparently talks about the velocity of a coconut laden african swallow or somesuch)
anyways... one good thing about this is that I've now discovered "hacker news" which I read every day and is quickly overtaking my favorite position as an interesting place on the web. So thanks for that bit:) really like that site!
As someone who suffered abuse at the hands of the 'anonymous mob', I really, really welcome this change.
I was playing WoWarcraft and made a post on the realm forum that an "elite raider" & 4chan user thought was noobish. It made them angry, they insulted me. I tried to restate my point, but got further and further abused.
After that it followed me to every forum post I made.
After that it followed me to in-game abuse (public channels)
I transfered off server.
it followed me to the new guild forum I'd set up, anonymous posters setting up new accounts and insulting me in the 'guild general' public forums.
I am very happy to hear that real first and last are going to be required. Sure, it increases the chance that they can look me up, and harass me "IRL" but then again... I can look them up too.
Sure it's a bit down - but considering the economy, it's not so much a "FALL" as a need to spend a few bucks on marketing.
Remember, the *vast majority* don't read computer news. Mom and Pop will still buy Dells for their sons and daughters when they go off to uni. CTOs of fortune 500's will still buy DELL because of their price for volume... a few broken bits here and there won't matter because, as opposed to you and me, fortune 500's actually get pretty good service.
The petition to get a new Star Control made has generated quite a bit of response, but more can be done. I would like to direct your attention to a cunning plan that Alex Ness from Toys for Bob has come up with. In his own words (from the Toys for Bob website):
First We Hit Them With Letters, Next Arts and Crafts.
After that, they won't know what hit 'em. Activision, I mean. As part of my multi-pronged strategy to convince Activision to insist that our next project be a Star Control one, I have come up with idea to harness the powers of arts and crafts as well as fans everywhere.
What I want to do is this: Make a giant map of the Earth. Maybe I should just buy one. I'm not map maker. If I were, I'd probably be instantly fired for my alternative spelling of the nation known as Uruguay as well as the fabrication of non-existent countries like Nutsack Kingdom and Nutsack Kingdom II. As a matter of fact, I have already been fired from previous jobs for these exact same reasons, even though none of those jobs involved making a map. So anyway, I'm going to buy a map. A real big one. Then I'm going to prominently display it somewhere in our office. Phase one of my plan will then be complete.
Phase two is where I once again, ask you wonderful community of fans for support. What I want is to put pictures of you guys up on this map. Not everybody but at least one from every country. This may be a problem for the magical isle of Greenland but who knows? There couldn't be all that much to do in Greenland, especially if you're unemployed like Andre the Giant's character in the Princess Bride used to be, so maybe someone who lives there has played a little Star Control. Anyway, what I'll do then is post your picture up over the respective country you live in. The idea being to show the fan base all over the globe. Will this help convince Activision to let us do another Star Control? I can't predict the future but I can tell you that if it's big and displayed prominently, it will help remind them every time they come to visit and be a real conversation piece. Plus it will just generally brighten our spirits. In Paul's case, this could lead to a level of congeniality rarely exhibited by man or machine. He's quite a bubbly figure, in case you don't know.
So if you've got the notion and a camera, can you send me a picture of yourself either playing SCII or at least standing near something SCII-related? Just send it right to old alexness@toysforbob.com. Or, if you really want the picture to get there extra fast, use my new other email address: nutsack@toysforbob.com. Somehow just the word "nutsack" does make things faster and better.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to weigh in on whether software, online-shopping techniques and medical diagnostic tests can be patented, saying only that inventors' request for protection of a method of hedging weather-related risk in energy prices cannot be granted.
The high court unanimously agreed with a lower court ruling that threw out Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw's patent, a decision many said could endanger patents in an increasingly high-tech world. But the high court said they did not need to make a broad sweeping decision about patents to dispose of Bilski and Warsaw's case.
"The patent application here can be rejected under our precedents on the unpatentability of abstract ideas," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court. "The court, therefore, need not define further what constitutes a patentable process."
This is a better background than anything else I've found. Tried to submit a general patent for software that determines energy prices against weather. Thrown out for being too abstract.
I even followed and spend 10 minutes reading through the link: "Some background is available at Late-comers guide: What is Bilski anyway?" and still am none the wiser.
A hint in future might be to write "Bliski tried to patent software that does XYZ, and the following organizations tried to help him fight the case" *OR* maybe "Biliski wrote software that did XYZ which Patent Troll N tried to sue him for infringement of. Organization of Pro Bono lawyers Q has helped him defend against N"
But you know... Slashdot and all that. They get paid for their traffic, not their quality articles.:)
he he... -1 troll;)
As it turns out, recent tax cuts indeed have an estimated half of citizens getting half their income tax back. Low income families. A family earning $50,000 with two children under 17 will get all their income tax back.
Also says they still pay for other taxes. Income tax is roughly half of all tax paid (so if your total tax rate is 34% then you're still paying 17%).
Also mentions that the reason the number has gotten so high is because of the recession.
But income tax rates were lowered at every income level. The changes made it relatively easy for families of four making $50,000 to eliminate their income tax liability.
Here's how they did it, according to Deloitte Tax:
The family was entitled to a standard deduction of $11,400 and four personal exemptions of $3,650 apiece, leaving a taxable income of $24,000. The federal income tax on $24,000 is $2,769.
With two children younger than 17, the family qualified for two $1,000 child tax credits. Its Making Work Pay credit was $800 because the parents were married filing jointly.
The $2,800 in credits exceeds the $2,769 in taxes, so the family makes a $31 profit from the federal income tax. That ought to take the sting out of April 15.
When I first read that stat I thought it sounded really sinister... but after reading the article, and finding that it's based on a family of four earning $50,000 a year, I'm a lot less worried about it. Two adults, both working, making that amount are still going to struggle to make ends meet with two hungry mouths to feed.
I sent this letter to my local NDP representative 8/25/09
I am writing you due to my concern and displeasure with what I feel are unacceptable, anti-competitive practices in Canada's mobile phone industry.
Foremost among my concerns is the practice of "Cell Phone Network Locking". Cellular phones are expensive pieces of equipment. Consumers nowadays can expect to either pay hundreds of dollars or be required to lock themselves in to a three year contract in order to get a handset subsidized by their network provider.
I understand and respect the network's need to protect their investment in terms of the "minimum contract time", but my problem arises at the end of the contract term (or immediately, in the case of the consumer who purchases their hardware outright).
Networks sell their hardware in a "Network Locked" state. This means that a phone purchased from Rogers will only work on Rogers owned networks, Bell only with Bell and so on... If a consumer who owns their phone outright is in any way unsatisfied with their service or have to switch providers for any reason, they are forced to abandon their hardware and "start again" with a new and expensive handset or enter another long contract.
Modern cell phones will typically cost $500 but can climb to almost $1000 for top-of-the-line hardware.
A recent article in the news cites Canada's cell phone rates as being amongst the world's most expensive (http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08/11/canada-cellphone-rates-expensive-oecd.html).
Though many countries do not have laws regarding the practice of SIM locking, a number of countries do seem to have been able to strike a fair balance between consumer protection and corporate profits.
I would urge you to consider pursuing Canadian regulations like those described in the following countries: Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore and Spain. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock) All of these countries have regulations that in one way or another allow the consumer to freely own their handset after they have paid for it. Often there is some fair and reasonable period of protection for the company.
Whether it be like Hong Kong's "until the phone is paid for", or Denmark's "Six Months" isn't really an issue for me, but for the time being it seems that relying on Canadian providers to voluntarily provide unlock codes to consumers is not working. I believe a legislative implement will be what is best for Canadians.
Competition is good for the consumer as is choice, allowing customers who have paid for their hardware to choose which provider to get their service from will hopefully improve our situation.
A second issue which seems to be getting coverage elsewhere is the move to charge consumers for receiving text messages. I am strongly against this as it opens the door for consumers to be forced into paying "Junk Mail".
Although I'll admit that I'm not necessarily an NDP supporter regularly, I am certainly in agreement with their current "I'm Against The Text Message Cash Grab" campaign that they seem to be running (Even if the language is a bit inflammatory for my tastes, the message is clear). Should you find yourself in a position to suppourt a bill on this issue, I would be pleased if you did.
Thank you very much for your time,
And here we are nearly 10 Months later and they're introducing a bill?
Could it be possible that the political system actually works? Surely there's some other explanation. Please, Oh Please, let there be some other explanation... I'd hate to be forced into voting for the NDP as the only party that isn't completely incompetent.
If a student at the school I worked at was rude to me in a public setting as you describe, I'd probably try first to ignore it or pretend I didn't hear it.
if it was something I couldn't ignore, I would wait until the next school day and give the student a detention, and probably a lunch-time detention or two.
Stuff like that happens every so often to every high school teacher. It's unpleasant. Outside of work, we'd like to not have to work. Unfortunately, the children often seek us out and try it on. Part of growing up is testing the limits and finding out what you can and cannot get away with.
I'm not sure how you'd react if someone you worked with and saw for an hour a day 5 days a week, told you that they thought you were a "cunt licking puss-fucker" while you were shopping for groceries with your mother in law. Perhaps you'd say to yourself "hmmm... maybe I shouldn't be such a cunt licking puss fucker, then this kind of stuff wouldn't happen." Maybe you'd ask the store manager (who doesn't know the child) to do something. Maybe you'd call the police (further embarrassing yourself and dealing with about 2 hours of paperwork that follow, not to mention followups and possible court appearances over the coming months). Or maybe, you'd wait till monday, call the young lad into your office and politely ask him what aspects of your behaviour brought the little tyke to the aforementioned conclusion, if he still felt that way, and maybe if the two of you could just spend some time together, he might revise his opinion. While he's here spending time with you, he may as well also clean the blackboards, or do some homework.
This stuff isn't rare enough that we can spend a month on the phone with police every time it happens.
Inside or outside of school is irrelevant
Wrong. Your power as a teacher ends at the school, unless you want to be held liable for all the actions of the children you've ever taught?Because that sword cuts both ways.
And why do I have this mental image of Dwight Schrute saying:
"Wrong. Black Bear"
Inside or outside of school is irrelevant
Wrong. Your power as a teacher ends at the school, unless you want to be held liable for all the actions of the children you've ever taught?Because that sword cuts both ways.
Honestly, that isn't true. According to the teacher's contract of employment (generally, for most North American jurisdictions) our responsibilities do not end at the school.
In many cases and circumstances, we have legal obligations to report impropriety. Cases of child protection and cases where the child could come to harm.
Most school districts also have a clause requiring the teacher to be "an example of judeo-christian values" (the exact legal term in the employment contract in Ontario). The legal meaning being that teachers are expected to be (seen as) virtuous individuals 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That does not end at the school gates.
Teachers contracts also usually contain the term "in loco parentis which means that when their parents aren't present, we are legally their parents. (think medical permission while on a school trip, you want teachers to be allowed to make a decision that could save your child's life)
Actually, I could go on quite a bit here... but... that last bit is the real crux of the matter. As teachers, we have the responsibility of making life and death decisions. We carry such precious cargo that these decisions are never so cut and dry as an arbitrary line at the school gates.
We love those children in our care, not just the good ones, but especially the "bad ones". They need so much more care to get them through. Sometimes (too often for the bad ones) that care comes in the form of punishment.
We stick with it because we love them and want them to do well. That love doesn't stop at the school gates.
And to answer your question, yes, I would happily remain responsible for all the children I've ever taught. Unfortunately, kids grow up and at some point a teacher has to say goodbye and let them do the rest of their growing up on their own.
The nice part is when they occasionally come back and say "thanks":')
Yet more proof that Slashdot editors know nothing about actual journalism
While this sounds like it could as well be an Onion story, the memo is being widely reported.
From the headline alone, I understood the reasons why the editor of the NYT would want to ban the word "tweet". Yet, it's listed as absurd by the Slash editor.
Did they engage in defamation? Yes. Is defamation legitimate grounds for suspension? No.
That is untrue. It is absolutely grounds for suspension. I was a high school teacher for five years and dealing with discipline amongst the students is paramount.
As a teacher you've got to stand in front of 30 (ish) teenagers and teach. Many of them don't want to be there, some of them have decided that they hate you personally over some personal slight from six months ago (ie: telling them they must complete their assignment rather than playing flash games, or it seems an issue with uniform as in the article).
If one student sits back and tells you to go fuck yourself and is seen to suffers no consequence then that behavior spreads. Inside or outside of school is irrelevant (though is it the case that the speech that is accessible in school is speech in school?)
How often do you read stories with headlines like "Student behavior out of control", "Teachers ineffective"... the fact is that there are good parents and bad parents. Leaving discipline choices up to the good parents is fine, leaving discipline choices up to bad parents is disaster. Better just to treat all students equally. One set of rules, consequences for actions. Let them adjust themselves to society and not the inverse.
At the end of the day, the punishment of suspension is about teaching them right from wrong, and a page calling your teacher a pedophile is wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
place to live everyday. The took away farm subsidiaries and now they have four times the output. No more patenting ideas that you will never try to build and sell, only to sue some other poor soul who's trying to make his life better. Not to mention the climate of NZ looks quite appealing.
Imagine where touch tech would be today if some dipshit in the 80's hadn't locked it up in patents? The touch tech of the movies could already be common place.
Maybe you've just got to set up a "shell corporation" in NZ. If for example you wanted to found an online store with one-click checkout. Set up a holding company in NZ to carry your software licenses, then use the web page to serve orders globally?
Of course it's more complex than that... but not nearly as complicated as moving there.
This week alone we've read about how Movies always end up in the red (even Harry Potter lost money) http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/07/09/1621218/Hollywood-Accounting-mdash-How-Harry-Potter-Loses-Money
and this one about how labels avoid paying musicians hasn't even fallen off the front page yet: http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/13/1737224/RIAA-Accounting-mdash-How-Labels-Avoid-Paying-Musicians
There's no way the legal expenses cost $16M in *REAL* money. RIAA uses internal lawyers. In fact, RIAA is just lawyers. They're paying themselves and once again, screwing the artists.
I mean seriously, to the "editor" who posted this (kdawson) would it kill you to put an ounce of fucking critical thinking into it before you post?
I'm sorry... I know this must come off as a "troll" ... maybe I'm reading too much slashdot or something.
No, there isn't. There is only one answer, and it is "no". And that answer is the only correct one for one simple reason, Blizzard was losing customers over the announcement. If the customers will stop using your product over a decision, you made the wrong decision. Nobody was going to START using WoW because they went to real names on fora. NOBODY. Therefore, it was stupid.
You're drawing conclusions without any data.
There were definitely people complaining on the forum, but you have no proof of people actually quitting the game (in significant numbers).
I would contest that people don't play WOW primarily for the forum interactions. People complaining might have simply stopped posting on forums and continued to play the game. Maybe they'd look for third party (guild) forums where they could still remain anonymous.
You can't say that it actually cost them any money at all. As it stands, you'll also never know. They clearly have backed off the real-name-only idea.
Again, we disagree, you DON'T LIKE the idea of Real Name Only foums, and I DO like the idea.
Your opinion may be more populist or it could be one held by a vocal minority. It's possible that the vast majority of Blizzard customers never visit the WOW forum and couldn't give a toss.
Considering the 10 million wow subscribers I'd expect that the WOW forum browsing population was significantly less than that. If it doesn't affect them and they stay silent. If the people who agree stayed silent (ish) and the people who were opposed were so vehemently opposed that they foamed at the mouth with rage... well the choice isn't hard to make.
It still doesn't make it a black and white issue.
There are many other possibilities outside of the single conclusion that you've drawn. I still think it is a good idea. I'd still prefer it. I don't think it's important though. So I'll not get upset if they don't do it.
What's more is that this application will bring programming "back" the the masses.
I'm a (former) high school teacher myself, and I'm getting near jitters thinking about how fired up my kids would get if they could program their own mobile phone app with the same ease of making a Powerpoint Presentation (younger students *LOVE* making powerpoint, quite often "reward time" would be "if you're all good, I'll let you make a powerpoint about whatever you want")
Think about how amazing it would be to teach a whole year class about creating an App for your phone. "Think of a problem that needs solving" - what buttons do you need? what do the buttons have to do? now draw the screens on paper, now draw the buttons in the interface... now here's how we add "actions" to the buttons.
Want to do something that's more complex? Maybe we need to look "behind the design, at the code"
How many people here grew up on the Apple ][ or on BASIC programs for the C64?
This is fucking revolutionary! What a great time to be alive!
I'm so excited I think I just peed a little :)
If you want to have an honest GLBT discussion, why are you having it on the WoW boards? That's not being flippant - if I were going to have a discussion about any serious, mature topic, I would consider posting it amongst the flotsam of the WoW boards to be an exercise in futility, lost amongst a sea of uninformed one-liners and arrogant diatribes. On a RealID-backed board, I might not suggest you start a post outing yourself as gay, but I'm not sure I would bother starting ANY discussion on the WoW boards as they stand now.
My initial reaction was to agree with this... but on further consideration, I think it's the audience / demographic that really needs a safe place to discuss those topics:
1) anonymous
2) introverted
3) teenage
4) safe from ridicule
5) comfortable
6)...
Yes, WOW might not seem like the ideal place to worldly adults, but to a small town / high school teen it might be their whole world. Or at the very least the only place they can be truly honest.
Most of all it seems a case of "Any port in a storm" ... if it saves a life right ? (I'm not even being overdramatic here, gay teens are said to be 4 times more likely to commit suicide http://gaylife.about.com/od/gayteens/a/gaysuicide.htm)
We're rapidly advancing in a different direction.
The pros and cons on both sides of this debate are compelling. Blizzard's time, money, and "quality of product (the forums)" versus people's privacy.
Not sure why it had to be "either/or". I think they should have rolled out Real-ID-only forums in parallel and let people choose for themselves.
In the end I think Blizzard waited too long. "Serious" WoW-related discourse doesn't happen on Blizzard's forums anymore. Most serious players know to start at elitistjerks.com. Not that their forums are perfect, but if I want good info on class mechanics, gear, talents, rotations... that's where I go.
Oh Opt in sounds great!
An option perhaps to "Show Only-RealID" posts?
"RealID only" forums?
because you never make mistakes, right?
There's a difference between making a mistake and doing something that anyone with more than a room temperature IQ should immediatley understand to be an insanely stupid idea.
And I'm talking room temperature in Celcius, not Kelvin.
I thought it was a great idea. Though it's apparently controversial.
There was a great article in "What the Dog Saw" about Ketchup. In it, he describes the fact that there's basically only one ketchup. That's because it's a perfect flavour. Anyone who tries anything else might say "yeah that's good... but it's not ketchup".
Mustard on the other hand, has many flavours, whole grian, dijon, french's ... and so on. That's because a certain portion of the population likes the texture of the grain, or the heat of the dijon. In fact they prefer that choice over the other possible choices. There's room for more than one mustard.
Similarly, there's room for more than one answer to the question of "Should Blizzard Forums Use Real Names"
Hmmm... maybe I should get a life.
I have never owned or even driven one save for a golf cart. My experience with the golf cart leaves me doubt as to whether an electric car can deliver enough torque to climb steep inclines.
Heck, what happens when you are stuck in snow all the while, the spinning of wheels eating away at your juice? Scary, isn't it?
I have never owned or even driven one save for an RC Racer. My experience with the RC Racer leaves me doubt as to whether people can actually even fit inside an electric car let alone get one around the track when the little pointy electricity stick pokes out of the groove on the ground. That happens a lot when you go round corners real fast.
Heck, what happens when you are stuck in snow all the while, the spinning of wheels attracts a herd of angry velocoraptors and they eat you? Scary, isn't it?
Electric cars are not golf carts. They will not be engineered to overcome the issues faced by people too lazy or slow to walk around the golf course, but to overcome issues faced by people who want to drive, on roads, in various conditions.
Your argument is known as a "False Analogy"
anyways... one good thing about this is that I've now discovered "hacker news" which I read every day and is quickly overtaking my favorite position as an interesting place on the web. So thanks for that bit :) really like that site!
I was playing WoWarcraft and made a post on the realm forum that an "elite raider" & 4chan user thought was noobish. It made them angry, they insulted me. I tried to restate my point, but got further and further abused.
After that it followed me to every forum post I made.
After that it followed me to in-game abuse (public channels)
I transfered off server.
it followed me to the new guild forum I'd set up, anonymous posters setting up new accounts and insulting me in the 'guild general' public forums.
I am very happy to hear that real first and last are going to be required. Sure, it increases the chance that they can look me up, and harass me "IRL" but then again... I can look them up too.
Sure it's a bit down - but considering the economy, it's not so much a "FALL" as a need to spend a few bucks on marketing.
Remember, the *vast majority* don't read computer news. Mom and Pop will still buy Dells for their sons and daughters when they go off to uni. CTOs of fortune 500's will still buy DELL because of their price for volume... a few broken bits here and there won't matter because, as opposed to you and me, fortune 500's actually get pretty good service.
Don't kid yourself. Dell will be fine.
The petition to get a new Star Control made has generated quite a bit of response, but more can be done. I would like to direct your attention to a cunning plan that Alex Ness from Toys for Bob has come up with. In his own words (from the Toys for Bob website):
First We Hit Them With Letters, Next Arts and Crafts.
After that, they won't know what hit 'em. Activision, I mean. As part of my multi-pronged strategy to convince Activision to insist that our next project be a Star Control one, I have come up with idea to harness the powers of arts and crafts as well as fans everywhere.
What I want to do is this: Make a giant map of the Earth. Maybe I should just buy one. I'm not map maker. If I were, I'd probably be instantly fired for my alternative spelling of the nation known as Uruguay as well as the fabrication of non-existent countries like Nutsack Kingdom and Nutsack Kingdom II. As a matter of fact, I have already been fired from previous jobs for these exact same reasons, even though none of those jobs involved making a map. So anyway, I'm going to buy a map. A real big one. Then I'm going to prominently display it somewhere in our office. Phase one of my plan will then be complete.
Phase two is where I once again, ask you wonderful community of fans for support. What I want is to put pictures of you guys up on this map. Not everybody but at least one from every country. This may be a problem for the magical isle of Greenland but who knows? There couldn't be all that much to do in Greenland, especially if you're unemployed like Andre the Giant's character in the Princess Bride used to be, so maybe someone who lives there has played a little Star Control. Anyway, what I'll do then is post your picture up over the respective country you live in. The idea being to show the fan base all over the globe. Will this help convince Activision to let us do another Star Control? I can't predict the future but I can tell you that if it's big and displayed prominently, it will help remind them every time they come to visit and be a real conversation piece. Plus it will just generally brighten our spirits. In Paul's case, this could lead to a level of congeniality rarely exhibited by man or machine. He's quite a bubbly figure, in case you don't know.
So if you've got the notion and a camera, can you send me a picture of yourself either playing SCII or at least standing near something SCII-related? Just send it right to old alexness@toysforbob.com. Or, if you really want the picture to get there extra fast, use my new other email address: nutsack@toysforbob.com. Somehow just the word "nutsack" does make things faster and better.
Thanks,
Alex
OH MY GOD!! So excited!
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/petition/petition.php
I love Activision right now. Would that they let TFB have access to Star Control license ...
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to weigh in on whether software, online-shopping techniques and medical diagnostic tests can be patented, saying only that inventors' request for protection of a method of hedging weather-related risk in energy prices cannot be granted.
The high court unanimously agreed with a lower court ruling that threw out Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw's patent, a decision many said could endanger patents in an increasingly high-tech world. But the high court said they did not need to make a broad sweeping decision about patents to dispose of Bilski and Warsaw's case.
"The patent application here can be rejected under our precedents on the unpatentability of abstract ideas," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court. "The court, therefore, need not define further what constitutes a patentable process."
This is a better background than anything else I've found. Tried to submit a general patent for software that determines energy prices against weather. Thrown out for being too abstract.
Job done. :)
I even followed and spend 10 minutes reading through the link: "Some background is available at Late-comers guide: What is Bilski anyway?" and still am none the wiser.
A hint in future might be to write "Bliski tried to patent software that does XYZ, and the following organizations tried to help him fight the case" *OR* maybe "Biliski wrote software that did XYZ which Patent Troll N tried to sue him for infringement of. Organization of Pro Bono lawyers Q has helped him defend against N"
But you know... Slashdot and all that. They get paid for their traffic, not their quality articles. :)
he he ... -1 troll ;)
As it turns out, recent tax cuts indeed have an estimated half of citizens getting half their income tax back. Low income families. A family earning $50,000 with two children under 17 will get all their income tax back.
Also says they still pay for other taxes. Income tax is roughly half of all tax paid (so if your total tax rate is 34% then you're still paying 17%).
Also mentions that the reason the number has gotten so high is because of the recession.
But income tax rates were lowered at every income level. The changes made it relatively easy for families of four making $50,000 to eliminate their income tax liability. Here's how they did it, according to Deloitte Tax: The family was entitled to a standard deduction of $11,400 and four personal exemptions of $3,650 apiece, leaving a taxable income of $24,000. The federal income tax on $24,000 is $2,769. With two children younger than 17, the family qualified for two $1,000 child tax credits. Its Making Work Pay credit was $800 because the parents were married filing jointly. The $2,800 in credits exceeds the $2,769 in taxes, so the family makes a $31 profit from the federal income tax. That ought to take the sting out of April 15.
When I first read that stat I thought it sounded really sinister... but after reading the article, and finding that it's based on a family of four earning $50,000 a year, I'm a lot less worried about it. Two adults, both working, making that amount are still going to struggle to make ends meet with two hungry mouths to feed.
oops... ha ha - that's the one I sent to my Conservative rep. There was another one I sent to my NDP rep when I moved to a different district.
Honestly, it is a fuck-of-a-lot more snow. :)
I am writing you due to my concern and displeasure with what I feel are unacceptable, anti-competitive practices in Canada's mobile phone industry.
Foremost among my concerns is the practice of "Cell Phone Network Locking". Cellular phones are expensive pieces of equipment. Consumers nowadays can expect to either pay hundreds of dollars or be required to lock themselves in to a three year contract in order to get a handset subsidized by their network provider.
I understand and respect the network's need to protect their investment in terms of the "minimum contract time", but my problem arises at the end of the contract term (or immediately, in the case of the consumer who purchases their hardware outright).
Networks sell their hardware in a "Network Locked" state. This means that a phone purchased from Rogers will only work on Rogers owned networks, Bell only with Bell and so on... If a consumer who owns their phone outright is in any way unsatisfied with their service or have to switch providers for any reason, they are forced to abandon their hardware and "start again" with a new and expensive handset or enter another long contract.
Modern cell phones will typically cost $500 but can climb to almost $1000 for top-of-the-line hardware.
A recent article in the news cites Canada's cell phone rates as being amongst the world's most expensive (http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08/11/canada-cellphone-rates-expensive-oecd.html).
Though many countries do not have laws regarding the practice of SIM locking, a number of countries do seem to have been able to strike a fair balance between consumer protection and corporate profits.
I would urge you to consider pursuing Canadian regulations like those described in the following countries: Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore and Spain. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock) All of these countries have regulations that in one way or another allow the consumer to freely own their handset after they have paid for it. Often there is some fair and reasonable period of protection for the company.
Whether it be like Hong Kong's "until the phone is paid for", or Denmark's "Six Months" isn't really an issue for me, but for the time being it seems that relying on Canadian providers to voluntarily provide unlock codes to consumers is not working. I believe a legislative implement will be what is best for Canadians.
Competition is good for the consumer as is choice, allowing customers who have paid for their hardware to choose which provider to get their service from will hopefully improve our situation.
A second issue which seems to be getting coverage elsewhere is the move to charge consumers for receiving text messages. I am strongly against this as it opens the door for consumers to be forced into paying "Junk Mail".
Although I'll admit that I'm not necessarily an NDP supporter regularly, I am certainly in agreement with their current "I'm Against The Text Message Cash Grab" campaign that they seem to be running (Even if the language is a bit inflammatory for my tastes, the message is clear). Should you find yourself in a position to suppourt a bill on this issue, I would be pleased if you did.
Thank you very much for your time,
And here we are nearly 10 Months later and they're introducing a bill?
Could it be possible that the political system actually works? Surely there's some other explanation. Please, Oh Please, let there be some other explanation... I'd hate to be forced into voting for the NDP as the only party that isn't completely incompetent.
I disagree.
If a student at the school I worked at was rude to me in a public setting as you describe, I'd probably try first to ignore it or pretend I didn't hear it.
if it was something I couldn't ignore, I would wait until the next school day and give the student a detention, and probably a lunch-time detention or two.
Stuff like that happens every so often to every high school teacher. It's unpleasant. Outside of work, we'd like to not have to work. Unfortunately, the children often seek us out and try it on. Part of growing up is testing the limits and finding out what you can and cannot get away with.
I'm not sure how you'd react if someone you worked with and saw for an hour a day 5 days a week, told you that they thought you were a "cunt licking puss-fucker" while you were shopping for groceries with your mother in law. Perhaps you'd say to yourself "hmmm... maybe I shouldn't be such a cunt licking puss fucker, then this kind of stuff wouldn't happen." Maybe you'd ask the store manager (who doesn't know the child) to do something. Maybe you'd call the police (further embarrassing yourself and dealing with about 2 hours of paperwork that follow, not to mention followups and possible court appearances over the coming months). Or maybe, you'd wait till monday, call the young lad into your office and politely ask him what aspects of your behaviour brought the little tyke to the aforementioned conclusion, if he still felt that way, and maybe if the two of you could just spend some time together, he might revise his opinion. While he's here spending time with you, he may as well also clean the blackboards, or do some homework.
This stuff isn't rare enough that we can spend a month on the phone with police every time it happens.
Inside or outside of school is irrelevant Wrong. Your power as a teacher ends at the school, unless you want to be held liable for all the actions of the children you've ever taught?Because that sword cuts both ways.
And why do I have this mental image of Dwight Schrute saying: "Wrong. Black Bear"
Inside or outside of school is irrelevant Wrong. Your power as a teacher ends at the school, unless you want to be held liable for all the actions of the children you've ever taught?Because that sword cuts both ways.
Honestly, that isn't true. According to the teacher's contract of employment (generally, for most North American jurisdictions) our responsibilities do not end at the school.
In many cases and circumstances, we have legal obligations to report impropriety. Cases of child protection and cases where the child could come to harm.
Most school districts also have a clause requiring the teacher to be "an example of judeo-christian values" (the exact legal term in the employment contract in Ontario). The legal meaning being that teachers are expected to be (seen as) virtuous individuals 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That does not end at the school gates.
Teachers contracts also usually contain the term "in loco parentis which means that when their parents aren't present, we are legally their parents. (think medical permission while on a school trip, you want teachers to be allowed to make a decision that could save your child's life)
Actually, I could go on quite a bit here ... but ... that last bit is the real crux of the matter. As teachers, we have the responsibility of making life and death decisions. We carry such precious cargo that these decisions are never so cut and dry as an arbitrary line at the school gates.
We love those children in our care, not just the good ones, but especially the "bad ones". They need so much more care to get them through. Sometimes (too often for the bad ones) that care comes in the form of punishment.
We stick with it because we love them and want them to do well. That love doesn't stop at the school gates.
And to answer your question, yes, I would happily remain responsible for all the children I've ever taught. Unfortunately, kids grow up and at some point a teacher has to say goodbye and let them do the rest of their growing up on their own.
The nice part is when they occasionally come back and say "thanks" :')
While this sounds like it could as well be an Onion story, the memo is being widely reported.
From the headline alone, I understood the reasons why the editor of the NYT would want to ban the word "tweet". Yet, it's listed as absurd by the Slash editor.
Did they engage in defamation? Yes. Is defamation legitimate grounds for suspension? No.
That is untrue. It is absolutely grounds for suspension. I was a high school teacher for five years and dealing with discipline amongst the students is paramount. As a teacher you've got to stand in front of 30 (ish) teenagers and teach. Many of them don't want to be there, some of them have decided that they hate you personally over some personal slight from six months ago (ie: telling them they must complete their assignment rather than playing flash games, or it seems an issue with uniform as in the article). If one student sits back and tells you to go fuck yourself and is seen to suffers no consequence then that behavior spreads. Inside or outside of school is irrelevant (though is it the case that the speech that is accessible in school is speech in school?) How often do you read stories with headlines like "Student behavior out of control", "Teachers ineffective"... the fact is that there are good parents and bad parents. Leaving discipline choices up to the good parents is fine, leaving discipline choices up to bad parents is disaster. Better just to treat all students equally. One set of rules, consequences for actions. Let them adjust themselves to society and not the inverse. At the end of the day, the punishment of suspension is about teaching them right from wrong, and a page calling your teacher a pedophile is wrong.