If anyone is interested in signing up at Dreamhost, use the following code to get $87 off one year of hosting:
BEANDIP
Yes, I'm spamming, but it is a great deal, you get a year of hosting for like $30 depending on what level you get.
Somewhat on topic: I use Dreamhost myself and they've always been excellent. They DO provide the space they say you've purchased if you actually use it (see OP), however they make no attempt to hide the fact that they totally oversell their space and bandwidth (and tell you why it's OK).
"Tracfone sells simple, modern models cheap. You have to prebuy a block of minutes, which end up costing 40 cents if within a few counties of home, and 80 cents beyond that"
Are you kidding me? I have a tracfone and I've never payed anywhere near that much! The best I've done is 180 minutes for $12 - that happened once. At this site: http://www.dunringil.com/ you can get a 60 minute card for $16 and use the code 51283 to add 60 minutes, so you get 120 minutes for $16.
I'm not a shill for this guy - I've been buying minutes from him for a couple years now and he always has the best deals. Also note that he doesn't guarantee the codes to work, however they've never failed me.
FWIW, I rarely if ever use my tracfone, but it is nice to have when you need it. I've got 900 minutes on mine at the moment from accumulating minutes. The phone is very simple to use and seems to work everywhere that "normal" cell phones work.
But nail it down, pick one. Civ II (I is just too basic), CTP, Civ III, Civ IV, or SMAC(X).
For me, it would be Civ IV, because I think it's about as close to perfection as a Civ game has come. From the days of Civ II I have yet to go a couple of weeks without playing a game of Civ. I do believe I will play this series of games forever and ever. I bounce back and forth between Civ IV and SMACX these days, but I always, always have an active game going.
Falcon 4:Allied Force - (used to be Falcon 4) is simply the best "game" ever. Infinite replayability, a learning experience and a way of life. It's great if you have 10 minutes of free time, or 10 hours.
Alpha Centauri - I think it's the best of the Civ series of games, and I've played them all. Much replay in this one.
C&C Red Alert 2 (including Yuri's revenge) - great multi-player fun on a LAN or stand-alone.
Wolfenstein:ET - for multi-player fun
Q3 Arena w/bots - for when you just want to run around and shoot things.
Thinkfree Office is very cool. It's not really the same sort of app though: it's a complete office suite with online storage that is written in Java.
There is a "quick edit" mode for Thinkfree though, so I guess, yeah, it's *sort of* the same. However the full-blown Java versions blow writely out of them water.
FWIW, I do like writely and have been using it for almost a year (before they were bought by google).
I bombed vectors when I first took it at the Naval Academy, then I bombed it again when I took it at Penn State. Neither time did I care enough to really apply myself to learn. But when I realized that I had to learn vectors to make the little soldiers move realistically, I applied myself and mastered them. I wrote some C++ classes and immediately forgot them again, but the point is that when I finally had a real goal and application I was able to finally learn something that had eluded me twice before. I just took a little motivation.
Please read and re-read that. It is this kind of motivation that is missing in a GOOD CHUNK of our K-12 education and I think it has a A LOT to do with why a lot of kids are not interested in "core" courses.
You can't teach first time learners effectively with notepad and command line compiling. They won't understand why you're doing it and what it's doing for them.
And that isn't effective teaching.
To teach effectively, you have to know WHAT you're teaching, WHY you're teaching it and HOW you're going to determine your students learned it (and to what extent they need to have learned it).
The WHY you're teaching something is the most important (IMO) because if you can't define (and convey) why something is important, then your students won't think it's important either. Trying to effectively teach someone WHY they need to know how a command line compiler works is going to be so incredibly difficult (remember, they have ZERO experience with programming, at best they've made an html web page) that they are going to turn off as far as learning goes and fall back to the "what do I need to survive this lesson mode" - which doesn't make for good learning.
The best way introduce people to programming (IMO again) is to start with an IDE and get right to the meat as quick as possible. IDE's take care of the management of code and they offer suggestions on syntax errors (IDE's like Eclipse for instance). There are less over-bearing IDE's, like BlueJ (http://www.bluej.org) made for beginners (fwiw I hate bluej, but whatever, some people like it).
After the student has seen some results and bought into to the "yes, I need to know more" mindset, then you can introduce the compilation process, make files / ant / whatever - but you need to be clear as to why you're doing it. If it's "just so you know", then guess what, students have plenty of "just so you know" information shoved at them everyday and for the most part they "just forget" it.
I knew this was going to happen... I'm glad it did too.
I've been using writely for about a month and trying to get as many friends and colleagues to as well. Writely is very cool and useful. I was concerned though that I would use it to create things that I didn't save locally and at some point writely would go out of business or start charging actual money for their service.
Now I don't have to worry (as much). Adding a google search into my documents will be extremely useful also!
I hope they start accepting new users again soon. I see you can still add collaborators even if they don't have an account, so it's sort of invite only at this point.
From TFA: Concerns over the site fall generally into two categories: unease over the type of content teens are posting, and fear of the type of people they're meeting.
This misses the point: MySpace has numerous "polls" and other crap that asks kids questions which destroy their privacy. Kids being kids don't see the danger in having a permanent public record about themselves and routinely answer questions like whether or not they drink, do drugs and have sex. Coupled with the ease in which they disclose their age, where they live and where they go to school, kids disclose all sorts of information online they shouldn't and make it easy to tie the myspace account to an actual human.
This isn't limited to MySpace, but MySpace asks the questions and prompts kids to reveal this information.
I also don't question whether or not schools have the right to block MySpace at the firewall, they do and should do so if they deem it isn't of educational value. Computers and the 'net are in school to support curriculum, not to meet your buddies online and chat with.
writeboard - bleh, check out writely.com
on
The Best of Web 2.0
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· Score: 1
Seriously, http://www.writely.com is a pretty decent online word processor (WYSIWYG), with publishing and blogging built in. It's still in beta, but it's very usable - much more so than writeboard.
Supports importing word and openoffice documents and can output to the web, word and others. Has tags like gmail instead of folders and will supposedly output pdf in the final version.
They do need better management of documents - once you get more than 20 documents going it gets a little unruly, but again, very usable.
Hate to rain on the parade here, but I have both Head First Java (EXCELLENT) and Head First Design Patterns (also EXCELLENT) and this book.
IMO, this book is not even close to the other two. The other two have a nice flow, while this book feels jumpy and cobled together. It's like the other with the fun sidebars and graphics, but just not as well done. I'd like to offer some specifics but the book is on the shelf in my office and I'm home - I just know I wasn't impressed with it like the other two. I literally read the other two cover to cover, this one was worth a couple of chapters at best.
I hate to agree with you, but I do. Seriously, I'm wouldn't waste 4 minutes waiting for this thing to boot.
What I need is a stripped down installation that boots to a minimal GUI, has firefox installed so I can check my gmail (and not use a public computer/logon to do it). I'd also like a bash shell, ssh and a few utilities - should be able fit easily on a 128 meg USB stick.
there's still more we can do for the folder-lovers and devout-deleters out there
If you actually have any input: put a fscking delete button on there NOW, how f-ing hard is it? I can't believe adding "auto-save drafts" was more important then a delete button!
Slashdot Mirror
... still not going to see it now.
If anyone is interested in signing up at Dreamhost, use the following code to get $87 off one year of hosting:
BEANDIP
Yes, I'm spamming, but it is a great deal, you get a year of hosting for like $30 depending on what level you get.
Somewhat on topic: I use Dreamhost myself and they've always been excellent. They DO provide the space they say you've purchased if you actually use it (see OP), however they make no attempt to hide the fact that they totally oversell their space and bandwidth (and tell you why it's OK).
Good host, very good prices.
"Tracfone sells simple, modern models cheap. You have to prebuy a block of minutes, which end up costing 40 cents if within a few counties of home, and 80 cents beyond that"
Are you kidding me? I have a tracfone and I've never payed anywhere near that much! The best I've done is 180 minutes for $12 - that happened once. At this site: http://www.dunringil.com/ you can get a 60 minute card for $16 and use the code 51283 to add 60 minutes, so you get 120 minutes for $16.
I'm not a shill for this guy - I've been buying minutes from him for a couple years now and he always has the best deals. Also note that he doesn't guarantee the codes to work, however they've never failed me.
FWIW, I rarely if ever use my tracfone, but it is nice to have when you need it. I've got 900 minutes on mine at the moment from accumulating minutes. The phone is very simple to use and seems to work everywhere that "normal" cell phones work.
Someone said something to me recently that made a whole lot of sense. Whether or not they thought of it, or pilfered it somewhere else I don't know...
She said "most of us don't feed our bodies what it needs, we fill them with what we think it wants"
Makes a lot of sense.
They're in our bases stealing our weapons!
Props for that choice. I love SMAC(X).
However I'd still take Civ IV... but I do love SMAC!
OK - me too.
But nail it down, pick one. Civ II (I is just too basic), CTP, Civ III, Civ IV, or SMAC(X).
For me, it would be Civ IV, because I think it's about as close to perfection as a Civ game has come. From the days of Civ II I have yet to go a couple of weeks without playing a game of Civ. I do believe I will play this series of games forever and ever. I bounce back and forth between Civ IV and SMACX these days, but I always, always have an active game going.
To NH... I've had enough of people putting down VT.
In no particular order:
Falcon 4:Allied Force - (used to be Falcon 4) is simply the best "game" ever. Infinite replayability, a learning experience and a way of life. It's great if you have 10 minutes of free time, or 10 hours.
Alpha Centauri - I think it's the best of the Civ series of games, and I've played them all. Much replay in this one.
C&C Red Alert 2 (including Yuri's revenge) - great multi-player fun on a LAN or stand-alone.
Wolfenstein:ET - for multi-player fun
Q3 Arena w/bots - for when you just want to run around and shoot things.
Thinkfree Office is very cool. It's not really the same sort of app though: it's a complete office suite with online storage that is written in Java.
There is a "quick edit" mode for Thinkfree though, so I guess, yeah, it's *sort of* the same. However the full-blown Java versions blow writely out of them water.
FWIW, I do like writely and have been using it for almost a year (before they were bought by google).
You're clearly thinking out-of-the-box. Promotion time!
C'mon, it's supposed to be "heading up teh project."
Please read and re-read that. It is this kind of motivation that is missing in a GOOD CHUNK of our K-12 education and I think it has a A LOT to do with why a lot of kids are not interested in "core" courses.
You can't teach first time learners effectively with notepad and command line compiling. They won't understand why you're doing it and what it's doing for them.
And that isn't effective teaching.
To teach effectively, you have to know WHAT you're teaching, WHY you're teaching it and HOW you're going to determine your students learned it (and to what extent they need to have learned it).
The WHY you're teaching something is the most important (IMO) because if you can't define (and convey) why something is important, then your students won't think it's important either. Trying to effectively teach someone WHY they need to know how a command line compiler works is going to be so incredibly difficult (remember, they have ZERO experience with programming, at best they've made an html web page) that they are going to turn off as far as learning goes and fall back to the "what do I need to survive this lesson mode" - which doesn't make for good learning.
The best way introduce people to programming (IMO again) is to start with an IDE and get right to the meat as quick as possible. IDE's take care of the management of code and they offer suggestions on syntax errors (IDE's like Eclipse for instance). There are less over-bearing IDE's, like BlueJ (http://www.bluej.org) made for beginners (fwiw I hate bluej, but whatever, some people like it).
After the student has seen some results and bought into to the "yes, I need to know more" mindset, then you can introduce the compilation process, make files / ant / whatever - but you need to be clear as to why you're doing it. If it's "just so you know", then guess what, students have plenty of "just so you know" information shoved at them everyday and for the most part they "just forget" it.
I knew this was going to happen... I'm glad it did too.
I've been using writely for about a month and trying to get as many friends and colleagues to as well. Writely is very cool and useful. I was concerned though that I would use it to create things that I didn't save locally and at some point writely would go out of business or start charging actual money for their service.
Now I don't have to worry (as much). Adding a google search into my documents will be extremely useful also!
I hope they start accepting new users again soon. I see you can still add collaborators even if they don't have an account, so it's sort of invite only at this point.
This misses the point: MySpace has numerous "polls" and other crap that asks kids questions which destroy their privacy. Kids being kids don't see the danger in having a permanent public record about themselves and routinely answer questions like whether or not they drink, do drugs and have sex. Coupled with the ease in which they disclose their age, where they live and where they go to school, kids disclose all sorts of information online they shouldn't and make it easy to tie the myspace account to an actual human.
This isn't limited to MySpace, but MySpace asks the questions and prompts kids to reveal this information.
I also don't question whether or not schools have the right to block MySpace at the firewall, they do and should do so if they deem it isn't of educational value. Computers and the 'net are in school to support curriculum, not to meet your buddies online and chat with.
Supports importing word and openoffice documents and can output to the web, word and others. Has tags like gmail instead of folders and will supposedly output pdf in the final version.
They do need better management of documents - once you get more than 20 documents going it gets a little unruly, but again, very usable.
Hate to rain on the parade here, but I have both Head First Java (EXCELLENT) and Head First Design Patterns (also EXCELLENT) and this book.
IMO, this book is not even close to the other two. The other two have a nice flow, while this book feels jumpy and cobled together. It's like the other with the fun sidebars and graphics, but just not as well done. I'd like to offer some specifics but the book is on the shelf in my office and I'm home - I just know I wasn't impressed with it like the other two. I literally read the other two cover to cover, this one was worth a couple of chapters at best.
I'm thinking if my player suddenly contracted NSYNC or some Backstreet Boys I would have to put it out of its misery.
Me too. It's 100% fully buzzword compliant.
"More than 3,000 RadioShack locations nationwide on Monday [the 21st] will begin offering the Skype Starter Kit,
Would you like batteries with that?
There is this awesome site called Slashdot, http://slashdot.org/ - I think you'll like it. Check it out sometime before posting news to your site.
I hate to agree with you, but I do. Seriously, I'm wouldn't waste 4 minutes waiting for this thing to boot.
What I need is a stripped down installation that boots to a minimal GUI, has firefox installed so I can check my gmail (and not use a public computer/logon to do it). I'd also like a bash shell, ssh and a few utilities - should be able fit easily on a 128 meg USB stick.
At what point will it become impossible to innovate with software without infringing on someones patent?
there's still more we can do for the folder-lovers and devout-deleters out there
If you actually have any input: put a fscking delete button on there NOW, how f-ing hard is it? I can't believe adding "auto-save drafts" was more important then a delete button!