Not that I'm a fan of RIAA, but did they hold a shotgun to a musician's head to make him publish his art through one of their member labels? If you don't like their business model, don't acquire (either legally or illegally) their products. It's not gonna kill you going without.
I started programming at 13, back in the '80s. An older brother had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and after seeing some of the cool things it could do, I begged him to let me use it too.
The user manual was a reference as well a tutorial (with exercises at the end of each chapter) and I taught myself just by working through that. Admitted, modern languages can be much more complex.
I guess it will help if your son has some itch to scratch, likes to "build things" - even if it has not much value in the world at large. One of my first large projects (after the flashy screens and sounds) was to code an electronic version of a board game. I guess programming is much a solution in search of a problem, and finding a problem that interests your son and will keep his attention long enough to learn something useful is half the battle.
Problem is, with modern computers much has already been done, and a newbie programmer could possible get quite disheartened with what he is able to achieve on his own.
I did some part-time teaching too at a stage, and my biggest struggle always was to find some practical example to demonstrate the use of some or other concept, to try and keep the attentions occupied. Programming seems to be too abstract for many to grasp the usefulness of. When I had to give a small presentation at the start of one year to try to get more pupils interested in taking my subject, I used a Lego Robotics kit (yeah, Q&D point&click programming, I know) to try and get a more tangible demonstration of what programming entails. It certainly was less boring for the kids.... Perhaps also consider some robotics with good old solder and chips, when you son is old enough:-)
Re:One thing Google could do about incoming spam..
on
Spammers Choose GMail
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· Score: 1
Please not. I receive and write mail in at least 3 languages (some of which do not feature on GMail's list), could possibly decipher a couple more, and sometimes receive mail sent from work accounts that add some insanely long disclaimer to the bottom in some foreign language.
Now a feature that I would like, is the ability to set up your own filters (black/whitelists) of domains, or even better, regexes, that should summarily be rejected. In other words, the sender should receive a "550 unknown recipient" reply >:-]
Exactly. Now can you imagine in what shape the telecomms services are over here if you have such mentalities providing the service and managing the people who provide the services?:-)
Talking of what people want to do to their employer... There was this large semi state-owned telecomms company (and a much-hated monopoly for very long in our dear country) that I contracted at. This happened after I moved to another job, but I still had contact with a lot of ex-coworkers. Allegedly a middle management type was sacked, and a few days afterwards he came in again (no idea how he got past various access controls) to (literally) make a stink: he had several shopping bags containing excrement (human, apparently, though it probably was not all his own), which he managed to smear across his own as well as his ex-boss' desk and office wall before being apprehended. Now the office building was one of these modern new agey glass and concrete monstrosities and consisted of 4 floors of open plan desks, with a large opening down the center the same shape and size as the huge lobby and indoor garden on the ground floor - thus no way to contain the "spill".
Apparently, this is one of the more widespread fantasies employees at that place have.
I speak 3 languages more or less fluently with some sprinklings of more. Congratulations for wanting to learn another language! It certainly widens your horizons (as a human being), no matter what language.
English is fairly good for your engineering requirements, so I would rather look at general, day-to-day requirements for a language. Do you want to travel/live/work in a non-english-speaking locale? Go for a language there first. Similarly if you want to correspond/converse with people who are not native english speakers. Don't assume that everybody can/wants to communicate in english or thinks that english is God's gift to humankind:-)
I would say that since english falls in the germanic language family, you might look at other members of the family first - thought english has 2 problems: more simplified than many of the other languages, and it also includes substantial parts from non-germanic languages like greek, latin, and french. If you want to look at Romance languages, Italian might be a good entry point since it is written very phonetically (unlike e.g. French) and you can move on to other Romance languages from there. (Strangely enough, english was of some help to me in learning Italian.) Although, if you're USAian, you might get more practical use from Spanish.
One of the hardest parts about learning a foreign language, in my experience, is practising it and keeping your knowledge of it alive. Reading alone is not always enough, one has to speak it. I would say if you don't have access to a community of native speakers of the language you are learning, you may be wasting your time, as you will forget much of it in a few years. So find a (social) use for the language you're learning, or learn a language for which you have a need.
... when Animoto, with its new Facebook app, had to scale by a factor of 10 in 3 days.
Of course, I'm completely guessing here, but they probably required you to invite 20 brazillion of your imaginary Facebook friends before you could install it.
Bah, who cares about some poor 3rd world country and its power-hungry little dictator? That would NEVER happen in the oh so enlightened West.
</sarcasm>
Re:heh, well ibm helped nazis too, so why not
on
China's All-Seeing Eye
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I think what the original submitter tried to insinuate is that *American* companies (you know, the land of the free, defender of democracy, etc. etc.) would participate in such "oppressive" schemes. But America has become a lot less free post-9/11, as I assume most would agree, and is moving into the same direction (courtesy of tech probably even supplied by the same companies).
What disturbs me is that many other countries are implementing similar Big-Brotherish measures than America is. Since some of them (e.g. China) seem not to be ideologically aligned with the USA on things like The War on Terror, I have to conclude that the Twin Towers-disaster and the WOT are handy excuses, the REAL motivation seems to be more control over the world's populations in general. Yeah, and why all at the same time?
Seems the world will become a much more interesting place in future....
Reading verses out of context seems to be a very old christian habit too, probably ever since they divided the Scriptures into verses.... Unfortunately some non-christians never got rid of that habit either.
If you care to read the whole of the letters those references where taken from, you might realize that not only do the writers mention the "more advanced" teachings, but that they are also anxious that the followers might learn and understand them - in both cases the believers are not "new" converts, but long-time disciples that seem to have never bothered to even apply the basics in their life.
Keeping advanced doctrine from followers in order to mislead them is one thing, not to be confused with first laying a basis with basic doctrine and from there on moving to advanced topics. You learned addition before you did calculus, right?
My bank uses something like that for its internet banking service. As a result, what they call "SIM card swapping" has popped up: somehow the fraudsters get a SIM card for your number, your own SIM and phone become disabled. Harder to do, easier to detect (especially if you know about it), but still a possibility.
The bank also sends out a text message to notify you on each login (which I don't get until after logoff if I'm in a data session) and in addition to logging in with a PIN, also asks for a password, but only some letters from your password, chosen at random at each session.
In the end it's still an arms race with measures and countermeasures.
a technologically savvy representative and a clear intellectual leader
Seems there are 2 major obstacles which will surely hinder him from getting anywhere in politics. (I could have said "American politics", since he is aspiring to get into that, but that would disregard the universal nature of politicians.)
If it is forbidden to draw pictures of prophets, why does nobody complain about the ubiquitous pictures of Christ, which is recognized by Islam as a prophet?
If pictures of Mohamed are forbidden, how do muslims actually know what he looked like so that they know a given picture actually depicts him and not somebody else?
If it is forbidden to depict anything with a soul, is it OK to depict some imagined person (which to the best of my knowledge does not have a soul or life)?
Slashdot Mirror
Not that I'm a fan of RIAA, but did they hold a shotgun to a musician's head to make him publish his art through one of their member labels? If you don't like their business model, don't acquire (either legally or illegally) their products. It's not gonna kill you going without.
Eloquently and well put, I must agree.
Oh, and remember that until you kick him out of the house (or at least to the basement), his job is to play, not work.
I started programming at 13, back in the '80s. An older brother had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and after seeing some of the cool things it could do, I begged him to let me use it too.
The user manual was a reference as well a tutorial (with exercises at the end of each chapter) and I taught myself just by working through that. Admitted, modern languages can be much more complex.
I guess it will help if your son has some itch to scratch, likes to "build things" - even if it has not much value in the world at large. One of my first large projects (after the flashy screens and sounds) was to code an electronic version of a board game. I guess programming is much a solution in search of a problem, and finding a problem that interests your son and will keep his attention long enough to learn something useful is half the battle.
Problem is, with modern computers much has already been done, and a newbie programmer could possible get quite disheartened with what he is able to achieve on his own.
I did some part-time teaching too at a stage, and my biggest struggle always was to find some practical example to demonstrate the use of some or other concept, to try and keep the attentions occupied. Programming seems to be too abstract for many to grasp the usefulness of. When I had to give a small presentation at the start of one year to try to get more pupils interested in taking my subject, I used a Lego Robotics kit (yeah, Q&D point&click programming, I know) to try and get a more tangible demonstration of what programming entails. It certainly was less boring for the kids.... Perhaps also consider some robotics with good old solder and chips, when you son is old enough :-)
Now a feature that I would like, is the ability to set up your own filters (black/whitelists) of domains, or even better, regexes, that should summarily be rejected. In other words, the sender should receive a "550 unknown recipient" reply >:-]
Exactly. Now can you imagine in what shape the telecomms services are over here if you have such mentalities providing the service and managing the people who provide the services? :-)
Talking of what people want to do to their employer... There was this large semi state-owned telecomms company (and a much-hated monopoly for very long in our dear country) that I contracted at. This happened after I moved to another job, but I still had contact with a lot of ex-coworkers. Allegedly a middle management type was sacked, and a few days afterwards he came in again (no idea how he got past various access controls) to (literally) make a stink: he had several shopping bags containing excrement (human, apparently, though it probably was not all his own), which he managed to smear across his own as well as his ex-boss' desk and office wall before being apprehended. Now the office building was one of these modern new agey glass and concrete monstrosities and consisted of 4 floors of open plan desks, with a large opening down the center the same shape and size as the huge lobby and indoor garden on the ground floor - thus no way to contain the "spill".
Apparently, this is one of the more widespread fantasies employees at that place have.
Not to give anyone any ideas or anything....
.... and if I had any Brazilian FB friends, I might have bothered to try the app out too :-)
I speak 3 languages more or less fluently with some sprinklings of more. Congratulations for wanting to learn another language! It certainly widens your horizons (as a human being), no matter what language.
English is fairly good for your engineering requirements, so I would rather look at general, day-to-day requirements for a language. Do you want to travel/live/work in a non-english-speaking locale? Go for a language there first. Similarly if you want to correspond/converse with people who are not native english speakers. Don't assume that everybody can/wants to communicate in english or thinks that english is God's gift to humankind :-)
I would say that since english falls in the germanic language family, you might look at other members of the family first - thought english has 2 problems: more simplified than many of the other languages, and it also includes substantial parts from non-germanic languages like greek, latin, and french. If you want to look at Romance languages, Italian might be a good entry point since it is written very phonetically (unlike e.g. French) and you can move on to other Romance languages from there. (Strangely enough, english was of some help to me in learning Italian.) Although, if you're USAian, you might get more practical use from Spanish.
One of the hardest parts about learning a foreign language, in my experience, is practising it and keeping your knowledge of it alive. Reading alone is not always enough, one has to speak it. I would say if you don't have access to a community of native speakers of the language you are learning, you may be wasting your time, as you will forget much of it in a few years. So find a (social) use for the language you're learning, or learn a language for which you have a need.
Of course, I'm completely guessing here, but they probably required you to invite 20 brazillion of your imaginary Facebook friends before you could install it.
That's why they should rather spell it as such: Hypocritic Oath.
When they enforced digital rights, I didn't raise my voice, because I didn't have any rights.
When they enforced digital manners, I didn't raise my voice, because I didn't have any manners.
When they enforce digital voting, it will be too late to raise any voice.
</sarcasm>
I think what the original submitter tried to insinuate is that *American* companies (you know, the land of the free, defender of democracy, etc. etc.) would participate in such "oppressive" schemes. But America has become a lot less free post-9/11, as I assume most would agree, and is moving into the same direction (courtesy of tech probably even supplied by the same companies).
What disturbs me is that many other countries are implementing similar Big-Brotherish measures than America is. Since some of them (e.g. China) seem not to be ideologically aligned with the USA on things like The War on Terror, I have to conclude that the Twin Towers-disaster and the WOT are handy excuses, the REAL motivation seems to be more control over the world's populations in general. Yeah, and why all at the same time?
Seems the world will become a much more interesting place in future....
Thank goodness we don't need to forgo the DRINKS (they help get over time zones too, you know).
Reading verses out of context seems to be a very old christian habit too, probably ever since they divided the Scriptures into verses.... Unfortunately some non-christians never got rid of that habit either.
If you care to read the whole of the letters those references where taken from, you might realize that not only do the writers mention the "more advanced" teachings, but that they are also anxious that the followers might learn and understand them - in both cases the believers are not "new" converts, but long-time disciples that seem to have never bothered to even apply the basics in their life.
Keeping advanced doctrine from followers in order to mislead them is one thing, not to be confused with first laying a basis with basic doctrine and from there on moving to advanced topics. You learned addition before you did calculus, right?
That was never the primary intention, just the sugar coating around the poison pill.
My bank uses something like that for its internet banking service. As a result, what they call "SIM card swapping" has popped up: somehow the fraudsters get a SIM card for your number, your own SIM and phone become disabled. Harder to do, easier to detect (especially if you know about it), but still a possibility.
The bank also sends out a text message to notify you on each login (which I don't get until after logoff if I'm in a data session) and in addition to logging in with a PIN, also asks for a password, but only some letters from your password, chosen at random at each session.
In the end it's still an arms race with measures and countermeasures.
Over here in sunny ZA, it's: "Previously Disadvantaged Holes".
Of course, we also don't refer to "blackouts" (which have become quite common in recent months), but rather "Previously Lit Areas".
Not as free as you thought? Well, what's new?
In Soviet Russia, pants eat you.
OK, lame, but it had to be said.
Seems there are 2 major obstacles which will surely hinder him from getting anywhere in politics. (I could have said "American politics", since he is aspiring to get into that, but that would disregard the universal nature of politicians.)
You know what the answer to that one is....
Why do they keep setting the bar higher and higher? Let's first try Human level intelligence, then go for the more complicated stuff....
Isn't that covered under the diet pill heading?
Please not. Imagine all the new "enhance your manhood" spam....
Been done. Except I would rather look for keys than for that lopped-off finger they took to make the fingerprint reader work....
Even better would be a SELECTIVE download. Some embarrassments are worse than death.
You might also want to keep the "50(*) kg(**) Notebook" rule in mind:
(*) Depending on the particular developing country, you'll have to choose a suitably large value for 50.
(**) kg = kilogram, the SI unit for mass. According to the Google converter, 1 kilogram = 2.20462262 pounds.