READ the text! It clearly says that the last comparison is for those companies with existing hardware.
"So any shop with existing IBM mainframes should look for solutions that can be moved to Linux, and then sit down and do the math."
It's not uncommon for large enterprises to have mainframe horses to spare. When you're faced with squeezing cash for new boxes, that old big iron comes cheap and starts looking good.
I switched from a mouse to a track ball to relieve elbow problems. This thing would be worse than a regular mouse for me. Looks to me as though it would force the user to suspend the whole arm above the level of the desk to ensure that the unit stayed at the proper angle to the desk, to avoid lifting hte roller off the surface. At best fatiguing.
If you suggest extending a friendly hand to create a better world, explaine how that is going to happen! Are you going to go hug every one of the? Pat their little heads and say, "I know you're not happy. Let's chat about it" What do you mean by that statement? And do you honestly think that peaceful means wouldn't be tried if it could work? Don't you think it has been tried? Those terrorists already think we're worse than they are. That's why they attacked! Do you think they care what we think of them? We're the Great Satan in their eyes. Can we do anything that they will not condemn?
The fact that they resort to such extreme, anonymous violence should clue you in to the fact that they do not value your ideas and morals. Trying to deal with them on your terms will not work!
Re:*PLEASE* read this before posting
on
More On Tragedy
·
· Score: 1
In my area, the heart of the midwest, the only mention I have heard from the media regarding muslim people is that these acts were carried out in the name of the Muslim people, but that they do not represent Muslim beliefs. It has been stated very clearly by local and international Muslim leaders that these acts are against all that Islam is.
Many of us work side-by-side with Muslim people every day, people who have become our friends, and in this event our allies. While the US has been dealt an injustice by these terrorists, we likewise have to recognize the injustice dealt to our neighbors who have been so sorely misrepresented.
Certainly there are those narrow-minded people who will unjustly accuse all Muslim poeple, but there are also those Muslims in the streets abroad celebrating this event. People of the US are not dancing in the street calling for the death of all Muslim people. Sadly those dancing in the streets of Palestine and Iraq are indeed calling for the death of all the people of the US.
The separation and accusation that Muslims around the world are feeling has to a great deal been brought upon by false prophets of Islam. I would think that the Muslim people of the world would want to work to bring about their end as much as the victims of these attacks.
Re:Peace in the midst of chaos
on
More On Tragedy
·
· Score: 1
What a remarkable troll. What you propose is to abandon all hope that the world can be salvaged for the living. You abandon all the innocent souls of all those who might know the peace and love of life and brotherhood. You forget that through this act the world has already been polarized. They have brought the wrath of the good people of the world together against them, Christian and non-Christian alike. Do you ignore the support and solidarity that the nations of the world have expressed? Do you discredit the statements of those non-Christian nations who have expressed sympathy? If you would open your eyes,ears, an heart to those around you rather than hide in your blinding faith you might see that this is also an opportunity to bring forces to drive the head of this serpent deep into the ground. Look in Deuteronomy 19.
[Deut 19:18] the judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,
[Deut 19:19] then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
[Deut 19:20] And the rest shall hear, and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.
[Deut 19:21] Your eye shall not pity; it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
All this for the charge of bearing false witness. Those who have caused this have certainly brought false witness against those innocent people, condemning the innocent as the cause of their suffering. And in Deuteronomy 20 the rules of engagement are also described:
[Deut 20:10] "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.
[Deut 20:11] And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.
[Deut 20:12] But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it;
[Deut 20:13] and when the LORD your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword,
Or if you prefer, Matthew:
[Mat 18:8] And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
[Mat 18:9.9] And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
There will be no peace with these perpetrators. They are to be thrown away, as they are the epitome of sin agains all people. When these people who stand in the way of peace and dialogue have been eradicated we will have the opportunity to sit down with one another and work for the peace that all good people deserve.
For the record, I am not a Christian. I follow no religion. But should you provoke me with Christian morals and ideas, I will respond in kind.
RW1 and RW2 are more meaningful than -RW and +RW? Why don't we call them Jim and Harry? Or Blue and Red? Or Wet and Dry? All you've done is replace one enumerator with another, so you've added nothing. You can just as easily say 'dash RW' or 'plus RW as you can 'RW one' or RW two'. Same number of syllables, same degree of differentiation, same lack of any meaning.
Have you seen the Discovery/TLC shows where the forest people of the Amazon are building a bridge over a steep-sided river? It's a few trees tied together with some vines or braided bark ropes. It's got spindly supports. The hand rails are for balance, and wouldn't hold you if you fell against it. By our standards you could hardly call it a bridge. It'd never hold up to the traffic we see every day. For those people who have no other choice though it's an incredible benefit. Sure, it's a bit unstable and dangerous to use, but they've got to get from here to there and they've no other choice. They've used the skills and materials they have, and it's better than the alternative. Some day one of them is going to have a better idea. Some day they'll figure out that bridges with stone supports and nice flat boards are better. When they get there they'll build a better bridge, but their skills and materials are going to have to improve.
Software is the same way. Most people dont' have an alternative. They can't make it themselves. They can't do without it. Meanwhile, we're looking for better boards.
Re:it's as good as they want to pay for it
on
Software Aesthetics
·
· Score: 1
You mean unionize developers? Demand proper working conditions? Good tools? Proper materials? Reasonable delivery timelines? That's what unions have done for construction.
House designs are built to architectural and structural standards. In the US there are national, state, and local building codes that say exactly what are best practices. These codes involve mandates for materials and techniques that have evolved over centures of building experience. Even if you are building someting nonstandard you've got to follow the code or your product is uninhabitable, or it might simply fall or burn down.
Software development hasn't had more than a couple decades of disciplinary experience. The entire science of computing is in its relative infancy compared to architecture and manufacturing.
This concern is what is necessary to push it to maturity, but the fact is we haven't figured out how to make software manufacture an industry. It's still an art, with both talented performers and charlatans alike, working with raw materials and ideas. When we can put software together with standard products like those at Home Depot or other do-it-yourself stores then you can expect the professionals to be pumping out well-engineered, reliable products.
The software market, and in fact the entire computer industry, is not mature enough yet to offer a high level of sophistication and uniformity. It's where auto manufacturing was in the early part of last century. There are a few mass marketers producing vanilla products for those who are dying to spend for it. They have the upper hand becasue people are going to buy whatever they can find. If you want a high scale product you're going to have to pay someone to make it for you. Otherwise you get what they have to offer, and it's good enough because it's the only thing you have.
Computers have only recently become a mass market item. It's still a bit of a luxury item. When cars were at this point you couldn't count on their reliability or safety. It took decades of refinement, regulation, and standardization before they became the daily commuter that we rely on today. And still after a century you can't take even a bucket seat from one and put it into another, even from the same manufacturer, without adaptation.
The sad fact is, you're probably born at that time when you'll never see a mature computing market. For the most part we're still working from the direct decendents of the first IBM PC. Still working from the first UI to make computers usable for about everyone. We're still defining what a computer is!
The first thing a HP-UX Sys Admin does is read the SAM manual to find out what it does. The second thing is to go to the other manuals and find the command line versions of everything SAM does so you don't have to use SAM.
I've had great success with HP support, both with hardware and development. I've gotten through to live people within half an hour. I've gotten callbacks within reasonable time, and generally from the people who could help. I've submitted code that had problems and have gotten expert advice and suggestions. When it's been problems with their OS code they've provided patch lists for a quick fix.
For the record, I've worked on HP-UX servers since '95 using version 9.04 on everything from E and F series through version 11.1 on R,K,N series servers. The major product was a custom middleware and multicast file delivery system linking over 1000 servers across the US. I've been very happy with HP-UX and it's corporate support.
At the same time, I've been associated with what started as a Tandem system, which went to Compaq. It's been a great system, and I know the support for that group was exceptional. I don't think HP can scrap Compaq support for that high-availability system. They've got nothing like it.
Re:Can only be a good thing for linux!
on
HP Buys Compaq
·
· Score: 1
First, everything is not about Linux. I want Linux to succeed as well, but mostly because of the changes it's going to make in the computer market. I don't care if DOS comes back, so long as it brings an end to the Wintel status quo.
Secondly, I promise you that when IBM and HP are done with their Linux it won't be anything like what you've been playing with. They won't be their revenues on hacker code that they download from somewhere. With cheering their entry into the Linux market you've invited the vampires in the door, and you're kidding yourself if you think you're keeping any power over them. They'll make Linux into whatever they want it to be.
I do though hope to see Compaq (Or whatever they become) PCs becoming more readily available with Linux. That's one thing I'd like to see HP push.
Re:What Next - Dell and Gateway?
on
HP Buys Compaq
·
· Score: 1
Dell and Gateway are PC makers. Compaq has what was once Tandem, which is a very attractive high-availability system that provides great transaction processing capability. It's also got the old Alpha processor lines, which some business still rely on heavily. Compaq has a great deal more to offer than the simple PC makers.
Many posts have pointed out how limiting the kits have become. Perhaps Lego might be successful by marketing non-specialized pieces and publishing designs using the piecse online. Or perhaps providing a way for users to submit designs.
Your problem points out exactly what the DOJ should be fighting for, the release of the Windows API code. If I could write an OS for which Windows applications would be compatible the whole world of PC computing would change. If I could open up to Linux or BeOS or MacOS or whatever, written with the Windows API and running all my favorite apps then the OS falls back to its real place, a secondary thought to my real productivity. We'd have the choice to work in our chosen fashion, using our favorite Unix/Linux command line and shell scripting, or if you choose writing BAT files for the Windows environment. I'd like for the market to have an opportunity to write a better Windows than Windows.
I don't want an alternative to Microsoft. I like having a stable base of usable applications. What I want is an alternative to Windows for running those apps.
That's already been taken care of. Federal deregulation of electrical service was passed a few years ago. That's part of what has California in such a fit.
I interviewed for a contract with one of the big credit card companies for writing the specification for systems validating these smart cards. As they explained it, the smart cards offer nothing in the way of extra capability from their end. It's simply a new way of validating the card for the vendor who is accepting payment. The ID and validation token is stored in the chip. The vendor's hardware validates using that. Both ID and validation tokens are sent to the card company to approve payment. It's nothing more than a security blanket for those vendors who are accepting cards.
Funny cars and top-fuel dragsters are fast. They get about one tenth of a mile to a gallon of fuel. Java is the same with CPU usage. Actually it's more like putting your Yugo on a bullet train. It'll go 300 MPH and it'll use no gas. If the JVM is written well and your machine is fast, you get a fast execution. It really doesnt' make much difference what you're capable of.
Java epitomizes lazy programmers. If you want your code fast and efficient, write your own memory management and storage structures. Write your own threading. I'm guessing you'll be compiling and linking it, not running ing a virtual machine.
And yes, I'm a Java developer. But only after almost 10 years of C/C++.
My first reaction to your troll is "Blow me!" But when I get beyond your asinine superior attitude I can make an intelligent comment.
Code today is written to the specifications given and time allotted. It's done with the tools and information provided. We all know our code could be better. We know there are techniques out there by which we would benefit. The quality of the product is directly related to the financial gain and risk.
It's just like any other business. We could be riding in ultra-safe cars, with ultra-efficient engines. We could be living in bigger homes that cost less to heat or cool. Hell, they could even make a scissors that's safe to run with. But it's not cost effective.
And then there are those who think Java is the best computing language. You think that garbage collection is free? You think that Hashtable or Vector is an efficient way to store your information? You think the JVM isn't wasting cycles you might put to better use? You talk about lazy programmers.
The real reason our elite are not going into teaching and the reason teachers aren't paid more is because of time. Given an equal number of students and an average school year, the intelletual elitist and the teacher who passed the state test by one point are probably going to turn out the same number of flunkies, the same number of mall rats, and the same number of future brain surgeons. In an alternate school setting the more educated and insightful teacher might make a difference, but as it is they simply don't have the time to make a difference. Since they can't do anything more than the average they don't bother. Since they're not competing against someone more capable, current teachers' pay doesn't have a broad spectrum. Because it's not competetive the NEA and other organizations have stepped. Everyone's made equal and pay raises are scheduled.
My wife was a middle-school teacher, so I know the routine. Personally, if I could make $100k a year I'd teach English. Since I can't I write software.
Slashdot Mirror
READ the text! It clearly says that the last comparison is for those companies with existing hardware.
"So any shop with existing IBM mainframes should look for solutions that can be moved to Linux, and then sit down and do the math."
It's not uncommon for large enterprises to have mainframe horses to spare. When you're faced with squeezing cash for new boxes, that old big iron comes cheap and starts looking good.
I switched from a mouse to a track ball to relieve elbow problems. This thing would be worse than a regular mouse for me. Looks to me as though it would force the user to suspend the whole arm above the level of the desk to ensure that the unit stayed at the proper angle to the desk, to avoid lifting hte roller off the surface. At best fatiguing.
If you suggest extending a friendly hand to create a better world, explaine how that is going to happen! Are you going to go hug every one of the? Pat their little heads and say, "I know you're not happy. Let's chat about it" What do you mean by that statement? And do you honestly think that peaceful means wouldn't be tried if it could work? Don't you think it has been tried? Those terrorists already think we're worse than they are. That's why they attacked! Do you think they care what we think of them? We're the Great Satan in their eyes. Can we do anything that they will not condemn?
The fact that they resort to such extreme, anonymous violence should clue you in to the fact that they do not value your ideas and morals. Trying to deal with them on your terms will not work!
In my area, the heart of the midwest, the only mention I have heard from the media regarding muslim people is that these acts were carried out in the name of the Muslim people, but that they do not represent Muslim beliefs. It has been stated very clearly by local and international Muslim leaders that these acts are against all that Islam is.
Many of us work side-by-side with Muslim people every day, people who have become our friends, and in this event our allies. While the US has been dealt an injustice by these terrorists, we likewise have to recognize the injustice dealt to our neighbors who have been so sorely misrepresented.
Certainly there are those narrow-minded people who will unjustly accuse all Muslim poeple, but there are also those Muslims in the streets abroad celebrating this event. People of the US are not dancing in the street calling for the death of all Muslim people. Sadly those dancing in the streets of Palestine and Iraq are indeed calling for the death of all the people of the US.
The separation and accusation that Muslims around the world are feeling has to a great deal been brought upon by false prophets of Islam. I would think that the Muslim people of the world would want to work to bring about their end as much as the victims of these attacks.
What a remarkable troll. What you propose is to abandon all hope that the world can be salvaged for the living. You abandon all the innocent souls of all those who might know the peace and love of life and brotherhood. You forget that through this act the world has already been polarized. They have brought the wrath of the good people of the world together against them, Christian and non-Christian alike. Do you ignore the support and solidarity that the nations of the world have expressed? Do you discredit the statements of those non-Christian nations who have expressed sympathy? If you would open your eyes,ears, an heart to those around you rather than hide in your blinding faith you might see that this is also an opportunity to bring forces to drive the head of this serpent deep into the ground. Look in Deuteronomy 19.
[Deut 19:18] the judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,
[Deut 19:19] then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
[Deut 19:20] And the rest shall hear, and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.
[Deut 19:21] Your eye shall not pity; it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
All this for the charge of bearing false witness. Those who have caused this have certainly brought false witness against those innocent people, condemning the innocent as the cause of their suffering. And in Deuteronomy 20 the rules of engagement are also described:
[Deut 20:10] "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.
[Deut 20:11] And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.
[Deut 20:12] But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it;
[Deut 20:13] and when the LORD your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword,
Or if you prefer, Matthew:
[Mat 18:8] And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
[Mat 18:9.9] And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
There will be no peace with these perpetrators. They are to be thrown away, as they are the epitome of sin agains all people. When these people who stand in the way of peace and dialogue have been eradicated we will have the opportunity to sit down with one another and work for the peace that all good people deserve.
For the record, I am not a Christian. I follow no religion. But should you provoke me with Christian morals and ideas, I will respond in kind.
RW1 and RW2 are more meaningful than -RW and +RW? Why don't we call them Jim and Harry? Or Blue and Red? Or Wet and Dry? All you've done is replace one enumerator with another, so you've added nothing. You can just as easily say 'dash RW' or 'plus RW as you can 'RW one' or RW two'. Same number of syllables, same degree of differentiation, same lack of any meaning.
I think maybe the next big thing will be SCSI. Or perhaps firewire.
Have you seen the Discovery/TLC shows where the forest people of the Amazon are building a bridge over a steep-sided river? It's a few trees tied together with some vines or braided bark ropes. It's got spindly supports. The hand rails are for balance, and wouldn't hold you if you fell against it. By our standards you could hardly call it a bridge. It'd never hold up to the traffic we see every day. For those people who have no other choice though it's an incredible benefit. Sure, it's a bit unstable and dangerous to use, but they've got to get from here to there and they've no other choice. They've used the skills and materials they have, and it's better than the alternative. Some day one of them is going to have a better idea. Some day they'll figure out that bridges with stone supports and nice flat boards are better. When they get there they'll build a better bridge, but their skills and materials are going to have to improve.
Software is the same way. Most people dont' have an alternative. They can't make it themselves. They can't do without it. Meanwhile, we're looking for better boards.
You mean unionize developers? Demand proper working conditions? Good tools? Proper materials? Reasonable delivery timelines? That's what unions have done for construction.
House designs are built to architectural and structural standards. In the US there are national, state, and local building codes that say exactly what are best practices. These codes involve mandates for materials and techniques that have evolved over centures of building experience. Even if you are building someting nonstandard you've got to follow the code or your product is uninhabitable, or it might simply fall or burn down.
Software development hasn't had more than a couple decades of disciplinary experience. The entire science of computing is in its relative infancy compared to architecture and manufacturing.
This concern is what is necessary to push it to maturity, but the fact is we haven't figured out how to make software manufacture an industry. It's still an art, with both talented performers and charlatans alike, working with raw materials and ideas. When we can put software together with standard products like those at Home Depot or other do-it-yourself stores then you can expect the professionals to be pumping out well-engineered, reliable products.
The software market, and in fact the entire computer industry, is not mature enough yet to offer a high level of sophistication and uniformity. It's where auto manufacturing was in the early part of last century. There are a few mass marketers producing vanilla products for those who are dying to spend for it. They have the upper hand becasue people are going to buy whatever they can find. If you want a high scale product you're going to have to pay someone to make it for you. Otherwise you get what they have to offer, and it's good enough because it's the only thing you have.
Computers have only recently become a mass market item. It's still a bit of a luxury item. When cars were at this point you couldn't count on their reliability or safety. It took decades of refinement, regulation, and standardization before they became the daily commuter that we rely on today. And still after a century you can't take even a bucket seat from one and put it into another, even from the same manufacturer, without adaptation.
The sad fact is, you're probably born at that time when you'll never see a mature computing market. For the most part we're still working from the direct decendents of the first IBM PC. Still working from the first UI to make computers usable for about everyone. We're still defining what a computer is!
The first thing a HP-UX Sys Admin does is read the SAM manual to find out what it does. The second thing is to go to the other manuals and find the command line versions of everything SAM does so you don't have to use SAM.
I've had great success with HP support, both with hardware and development. I've gotten through to live people within half an hour. I've gotten callbacks within reasonable time, and generally from the people who could help. I've submitted code that had problems and have gotten expert advice and suggestions. When it's been problems with their OS code they've provided patch lists for a quick fix.
For the record, I've worked on HP-UX servers since '95 using version 9.04 on everything from E and F series through version 11.1 on R,K,N series servers. The major product was a custom middleware and multicast file delivery system linking over 1000 servers across the US. I've been very happy with HP-UX and it's corporate support.
At the same time, I've been associated with what started as a Tandem system, which went to Compaq. It's been a great system, and I know the support for that group was exceptional. I don't think HP can scrap Compaq support for that high-availability system. They've got nothing like it.
First, everything is not about Linux. I want Linux to succeed as well, but mostly because of the changes it's going to make in the computer market. I don't care if DOS comes back, so long as it brings an end to the Wintel status quo.
Secondly, I promise you that when IBM and HP are done with their Linux it won't be anything like what you've been playing with. They won't be their revenues on hacker code that they download from somewhere. With cheering their entry into the Linux market you've invited the vampires in the door, and you're kidding yourself if you think you're keeping any power over them. They'll make Linux into whatever they want it to be.
I do though hope to see Compaq (Or whatever they become) PCs becoming more readily available with Linux. That's one thing I'd like to see HP push.
Dell and Gateway are PC makers. Compaq has what was once Tandem, which is a very attractive high-availability system that provides great transaction processing capability. It's also got the old Alpha processor lines, which some business still rely on heavily. Compaq has a great deal more to offer than the simple PC makers.
Many posts have pointed out how limiting the kits have become. Perhaps Lego might be successful by marketing non-specialized pieces and publishing designs using the piecse online. Or perhaps providing a way for users to submit designs.
Your problem points out exactly what the DOJ should be fighting for, the release of the Windows API code. If I could write an OS for which Windows applications would be compatible the whole world of PC computing would change. If I could open up to Linux or BeOS or MacOS or whatever, written with the Windows API and running all my favorite apps then the OS falls back to its real place, a secondary thought to my real productivity. We'd have the choice to work in our chosen fashion, using our favorite Unix/Linux command line and shell scripting, or if you choose writing BAT files for the Windows environment. I'd like for the market to have an opportunity to write a better Windows than Windows.
I don't want an alternative to Microsoft. I like having a stable base of usable applications. What I want is an alternative to Windows for running those apps.
That's already been taken care of. Federal deregulation of electrical service was passed a few years ago. That's part of what has California in such a fit.
At least read posting, if not the article. It's 7 nines, not 9.
I interviewed for a contract with one of the big credit card companies for writing the specification for systems validating these smart cards. As they explained it, the smart cards offer nothing in the way of extra capability from their end. It's simply a new way of validating the card for the vendor who is accepting payment. The ID and validation token is stored in the chip. The vendor's hardware validates using that. Both ID and validation tokens are sent to the card company to approve payment. It's nothing more than a security blanket for those vendors who are accepting cards.
Funny cars and top-fuel dragsters are fast. They get about one tenth of a mile to a gallon of fuel. Java is the same with CPU usage. Actually it's more like putting your Yugo on a bullet train. It'll go 300 MPH and it'll use no gas. If the JVM is written well and your machine is fast, you get a fast execution. It really doesnt' make much difference what you're capable of.
Java epitomizes lazy programmers. If you want your code fast and efficient, write your own memory management and storage structures. Write your own threading. I'm guessing you'll be compiling and linking it, not running ing a virtual machine.
And yes, I'm a Java developer. But only after almost 10 years of C/C++.
My first reaction to your troll is "Blow me!" But when I get beyond your asinine superior attitude I can make an intelligent comment.
Code today is written to the specifications given and time allotted. It's done with the tools and information provided. We all know our code could be better. We know there are techniques out there by which we would benefit. The quality of the product is directly related to the financial gain and risk.
It's just like any other business. We could be riding in ultra-safe cars, with ultra-efficient engines. We could be living in bigger homes that cost less to heat or cool. Hell, they could even make a scissors that's safe to run with. But it's not cost effective.
And then there are those who think Java is the best computing language. You think that garbage collection is free? You think that Hashtable or Vector is an efficient way to store your information? You think the JVM isn't wasting cycles you might put to better use? You talk about lazy programmers.
Is nobody tuned into the same station as me?
You are correct. No one else is tuned in. I'm thinking you've had a bit of alcohol in your surrogate.
The real reason our elite are not going into teaching and the reason teachers aren't paid more is because of time. Given an equal number of students and an average school year, the intelletual elitist and the teacher who passed the state test by one point are probably going to turn out the same number of flunkies, the same number of mall rats, and the same number of future brain surgeons. In an alternate school setting the more educated and insightful teacher might make a difference, but as it is they simply don't have the time to make a difference. Since they can't do anything more than the average they don't bother. Since they're not competing against someone more capable, current teachers' pay doesn't have a broad spectrum. Because it's not competetive the NEA and other organizations have stepped. Everyone's made equal and pay raises are scheduled.
My wife was a middle-school teacher, so I know the routine. Personally, if I could make $100k a year I'd teach English. Since I can't I write software.
Oh, no, I'd never want to be a beta! And Epsilon's are SO stupid! I'm ever so grateful I'm an Alpha!