Mine were generally 15 years old, as witnessed by the fashions of the people in the pictures in them. Some didn't even have covers.
But even at 6-7 years old, the math just doesn't work. Hell, even at replacing them every other year, it just doesn't work.
I suspect its probably a failing school district with administrators panicking and doing anything to show the school board of the city that they're trying to fix the problem, in order to keep their jobs... because from a pure economic or educational standpoint, replacing unbreakable reliable textbooks with expensive, breakable electronics just makes no sense.
They say a set of childs textbooks is $350, so if the notebooks were $500, it would be cost competitive.
Admittedly its been a long time since I've been in school, but my textbooks were largely decades old when I was in school. They may be $350 a set, but spread out over 30 years, thats $15 a year per student.
We can barely keep an IBM laptop here at work running for a year before they break, and these are developers and sales guys, not 6th graders using them.
Even if the cost of the electronic versions was $0, I don't see how this is even remotely cost effective.
Interesting theory but the original screenplay didn't have the flux capacitor, that was much later in the process. The movie was supposed to originally have the time machine built in a refrigerator, but there was worry about children getting trapped in a refrigerator, so it was changed.
If you spent a few more minutes searching, you would've discovered that the DeLorean's top speed is 130+mph, it came from the factory with an 85mph speedometer, it was changed for the movie to a 95mph max speedometer.
You know, doing a quick google search would've kept you from looking stupid.
In 1980 the US government restricted speedometers to 85mph. That lasted until 1985/1986. The majority of cars sold in the US went from 0-85mph on the speedometers. In some cases the manufacturer skirted the law in creative ways, for example Ford I believe had speedometers on their Thunderbirds or maybe it was the Mustang that went to 120mph, but the numbers stopped at 85mph, to stay within the letter of the law.
Thats why early 80's 911's originally had 85mph speedometers even though my 1968 goes up to 250kph, although most had them replaced by their owners at some point after the law was removed.
Having driven one, I can tell you they'll hit 88 without much effort, but they are quite a bit slower than their exotic image would make you think.
I'm not sure how many people really get it, especially on/. where everyone is pretty young, but the 88mph wasn't a randomly chosen speed. Back when the Deloreans were made and around when the movie was made, US law make all cars have to have an 85mph speedometer. Porsche's, Ferrari's, they all had 85mph speedometers.
So of course it was (dripping with sarcasm) a big deal for a car to get to 88!
Its the stolen ones, or the illegal retrofits that are probably the ones blinding you.
People fit the housings in cars that don't have auto levelling features, so they end up too high when you put people in the back. Or they put the HID bulbs in normal housings, which don't have the correct reflector shape and cut-off, and blind people.
That article is so full of incorrect statements, its sad it got published in such a reputable paper.
It confuses horzontal and vertical resolutions left and right, mixing the 4k horizontal resolution of a 4k scan with the 1080 vertical resolution of HDTV and extrapolating silly figures from the result, as one example.
4k scans of film aren't uncommon, although this might be the first time it was done for archival purposes.
No matter what the article author says, you'll see zero difference between a 4k, or 2k scan on a DVD transfer. A 2k scan is aproximately HD resolution, so there would be a benefit for HD formats to have a 4k scan, to eliminate noise, etc.
The article was also unclear why such horsepower is needed for such a mundane process as scanning and storing film. Thats a problem thats been solved for a decade or more by the film industry, where working with 4k frames is commonplace.
I ran Linux as my primary desktop OS from 1994 until early 2003.
Switched to OSX, now I've got two OSX systems, and a single lone Linux box running my e-mail. That may go the way of the dodo if I can actually move the 300+ meg of e-mail I've got on there into a gmail account and actually find things.
I was a Linux desktop user for nine years not because it was free but because there was nothing better out there. Now there is. It'll be a long time before Linux can regain that spot for what I use computers for.
Its about two things -- apps and polish. OSX's interface disappears when you really know it. Its totally consistent, and becomes nothing but an interface to the tools you're using. Linux's UI's are too inconsistent, and the best apps in each category use too many different UI toolkits. Its a distraction to have to switch from one UI to another when switching between applications.
Until *all* the applications I need on a day-to-day basis use the same toolkits, have identical hotkeys, consistent menu organization then those applications waste my time.
Free software is good in concept and ideals, but its really got a LONG way to go to get people to use it for its quality not its price. Companies think of switching because of their bottom line, not because its going to make their employees jobs easier.
15 hours of how to move in traffic isn't driving instruction. People need to know what to do when they understeer and oversteer. They need to have done it before, over and over, so they learn how to react.
Controlling a car isn't hard, and the majority of times people think their car is out of control, its not so far gone a knowledgable driver couldn't recover safely.
We just don't teach anyone how to drive in this country. Fifty bucks and fifteen hours behind the wheel of a minimum wage driving teacher shouldn't cut it.
I think the point is some people don't think about/realize that the ability to integrate information like that is so easy.
Plus its pretty damn cool they can demand print the magazine covers.
Obviously its a stunt, though... anyone who subscribes to a libertarian magazine probably understands those issues anyway... its a rallying call for them.
The thing that made Opportunity and Spirit short termed labratories is the solar power.
From what I've read, they're going to use nuclear generators like Cassini used (and, for that matter, the Viking landers) to allow the rovers to work for potentially years on the surface.
In that case, its just an evolutionary change from the current rover technology. 2009 doesn't seem at all farfetched, especially given how quickly the current rovers were developed.
Dammit, I've got a four digit UID and in like six or seven years of reading Slashdot I've never had a chance to get a first post, and now I get whacked by the moderators.
Don't moderate us old codgers like that, we don't get the opportunities you young whippersnappers get.
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Because I a) wanted to check out the new versions now and b) have a life and don't have time to update all my computers now.
Turned out I had to go update them, or sit here without any music while pretending to write code.
They don't warn you that once you upgrade, you can't access shared music on older versions of iTunes. Now I have to go upgrade all my systems.
Don't install it if you don't have time to upgrade all your computers, if that sort of thing matters to you.
Mine were generally 15 years old, as witnessed by the fashions of the people in the pictures in them. Some didn't even have covers.
But even at 6-7 years old, the math just doesn't work. Hell, even at replacing them every other year, it just doesn't work.
I suspect its probably a failing school district with administrators panicking and doing anything to show the school board of the city that they're trying to fix the problem, in order to keep their jobs... because from a pure economic or educational standpoint, replacing unbreakable reliable textbooks with expensive, breakable electronics just makes no sense.
And on the off chance someone notices how bad my math was, thats what happens when you use 30 year old text books ;-)
They say a set of childs textbooks is $350, so if the notebooks were $500, it would be cost competitive.
Admittedly its been a long time since I've been in school, but my textbooks were largely decades old when I was in school. They may be $350 a set, but spread out over 30 years, thats $15 a year per student.
We can barely keep an IBM laptop here at work running for a year before they break, and these are developers and sales guys, not 6th graders using them.
Even if the cost of the electronic versions was $0, I don't see how this is even remotely cost effective.
In most of the movie Lazlo was out during the day, not at night. Mitch sees him in the morning first, and on campus, etc.
Interesting theory but the original screenplay didn't have the flux capacitor, that was much later in the process. The movie was supposed to originally have the time machine built in a refrigerator, but there was worry about children getting trapped in a refrigerator, so it was changed.
Wish I could edit posts on here.
If you spent a few more minutes searching, you would've discovered that the DeLorean's top speed is 130+mph, it came from the factory with an 85mph speedometer, it was changed for the movie to a 95mph max speedometer.
You know, doing a quick google search would've kept you from looking stupid.
In 1980 the US government restricted speedometers to 85mph. That lasted until 1985/1986. The majority of cars sold in the US went from 0-85mph on the speedometers. In some cases the manufacturer skirted the law in creative ways, for example Ford I believe had speedometers on their Thunderbirds or maybe it was the Mustang that went to 120mph, but the numbers stopped at 85mph, to stay within the letter of the law.
Thats why early 80's 911's originally had 85mph speedometers even though my 1968 goes up to 250kph, although most had them replaced by their owners at some point after the law was removed.
Having driven one, I can tell you they'll hit 88 without much effort, but they are quite a bit slower than their exotic image would make you think.
/. where everyone is pretty young, but the 88mph wasn't a randomly chosen speed. Back when the Deloreans were made and around when the movie was made, US law make all cars have to have an 85mph speedometer. Porsche's, Ferrari's, they all had 85mph speedometers.
I'm not sure how many people really get it, especially on
So of course it was (dripping with sarcasm) a big deal for a car to get to 88!
They're required, manual levelling isn't legal in the US.
Euro cars and Mexican cars often have a knob to do it. US cars have a compression sensor on the front and rear springs.
Its the stolen ones, or the illegal retrofits that are probably the ones blinding you.
People fit the housings in cars that don't have auto levelling features, so they end up too high when you put people in the back. Or they put the HID bulbs in normal housings, which don't have the correct reflector shape and cut-off, and blind people.
That article is so full of incorrect statements, its sad it got published in such a reputable paper.
It confuses horzontal and vertical resolutions left and right, mixing the 4k horizontal resolution of a 4k scan with the 1080 vertical resolution of HDTV and extrapolating silly figures from the result, as one example.
4k scans of film aren't uncommon, although this might be the first time it was done for archival purposes.
No matter what the article author says, you'll see zero difference between a 4k, or 2k scan on a DVD transfer. A 2k scan is aproximately HD resolution, so there would be a benefit for HD formats to have a 4k scan, to eliminate noise, etc.
The article was also unclear why such horsepower is needed for such a mundane process as scanning and storing film. Thats a problem thats been solved for a decade or more by the film industry, where working with 4k frames is commonplace.
I ran Linux as my primary desktop OS from 1994 until early 2003.
Switched to OSX, now I've got two OSX systems, and a single lone Linux box running my e-mail. That may go the way of the dodo if I can actually move the 300+ meg of e-mail I've got on there into a gmail account and actually find things.
I was a Linux desktop user for nine years not because it was free but because there was nothing better out there. Now there is. It'll be a long time before Linux can regain that spot for what I use computers for.
Its about two things -- apps and polish. OSX's interface disappears when you really know it. Its totally consistent, and becomes nothing but an interface to the tools you're using. Linux's UI's are too inconsistent, and the best apps in each category use too many different UI toolkits. Its a distraction to have to switch from one UI to another when switching between applications.
Until *all* the applications I need on a day-to-day basis use the same toolkits, have identical hotkeys, consistent menu organization then those applications waste my time.
Free software is good in concept and ideals, but its really got a LONG way to go to get people to use it for its quality not its price. Companies think of switching because of their bottom line, not because its going to make their employees jobs easier.
Teach people how to drive.
15 hours of how to move in traffic isn't driving instruction. People need to know what to do when they understeer and oversteer. They need to have done it before, over and over, so they learn how to react.
Controlling a car isn't hard, and the majority of times people think their car is out of control, its not so far gone a knowledgable driver couldn't recover safely.
We just don't teach anyone how to drive in this country. Fifty bucks and fifteen hours behind the wheel of a minimum wage driving teacher shouldn't cut it.
As a result, the conclusions drawn by Forrester have extremely limited real-world value for customers
Thats probably why they went from having all but two floors of the building they were in in Cambridge to only two floors and part of a third.
I would've said the location sounds familiar because of that song in the Muppet Movie...
I thought Armadillo was still stuck in the "testing the motors" phase.
Do they have a spacecraft at all?
I think the point is some people don't think about/realize that the ability to integrate information like that is so easy.
Plus its pretty damn cool they can demand print the magazine covers.
Obviously its a stunt, though... anyone who subscribes to a libertarian magazine probably understands those issues anyway... its a rallying call for them.
You sure its not listed as one of the states? ;-)
That doesn't make sense.
Thats like saying you finally broke even between lift and gravity not when the first plane flew but when the airlines first made a profit.
The thing that made Opportunity and Spirit short termed labratories is the solar power.
From what I've read, they're going to use nuclear generators like Cassini used (and, for that matter, the Viking landers) to allow the rovers to work for potentially years on the surface.
In that case, its just an evolutionary change from the current rover technology. 2009 doesn't seem at all farfetched, especially given how quickly the current rovers were developed.
They're selling software for the iPod, nothing more.
DRM means you are stuck listening to it on iTunes or an iPod.
Apple makes $0.00 on each song sold.
Why again would Apple drop DRM?
I think Apple's got several millions of songs sold that argue that DRM does work when done right.
Everyone is happy. I have my cheap CDs, I can listen to them and burn them when I want, its all legal, and even the RIAA is happy.
Why would Apple drop DRM?
Dammit, I've got a four digit UID and in like six or seven years of reading Slashdot I've never had a chance to get a first post, and now I get whacked by the moderators.
Don't moderate us old codgers like that, we don't get the opportunities you young whippersnappers get.