This has worked well (according to all reports, I'm not living here enough longer to justify it) in Arkansas. Check out official info at www.donotcall.org.
So many people (especially computer people) confuse knowledge with intelligence. Knowing how to use a computer does not make you smart. Further, and more importantly, it does NOT make you a better person than anyone else. Fight arrogance. Teach kids to do what it takes to excell and not be pompous brats about it.
Perhaps I spoke out of ignorance. I have/never/ seen anything of that sort in any school I have attended. That is of course not a representative sample of the schools of the nation.
I do have some questions however:
Did the kids who got pushed around (especially the ones who were really injured) say something to their teachers/administrators/teachers?
Was such violence really ignored?
If the answers to these questions is yes, then I submit that this is nothing short of scandalous. Letters should be written, legal action taken, and even protests staged. The time to say something is now, while attention is still drawn to such matters by the present disaster.
If, however, the abused kids said nothing to anyone (or if their parents didn't take teachers and administrators to task), then this becomes a much different issue. Kids should be taught to stand up for themselves (no, not by fighting physically) the way they will have to in the real world - by bringing problems to the attention of those in charge, and, if necessary, following the chain of command until something happens.
High school and junior high kids have felt rejected by their peers since the beginning of time. The fact is that this is an insecure age for a lot of people, and most of them don't have enough experience living to realize that it has happened to everyone. Thus, young kids think that their own individual suffering at the hands of is a fresh pain felt only by them, and that it makes them different from other people. To encourage this by saying that they are 'voiceless kids,' is not healthy. They are only voiceless if they talk to no one.
This is not at all to say that the things happening to people lately are all good. Some people are certainly misundertanding the shootings and what they mean; however, this does not justify self-pity or self-alienation.
And to all of the people out there who are feeling under things -- don't sweat it, things'll get better; however, they won't if you don't want them too. Just do your best to do what you believe in, and don't worry about what people say.
That comment should be moderated up. It's the most succinctly put expression of what I've been thinking about this article since I saw it. There's no reason to be so militantly defensive, or to accuse everyone of accusing.
That said, I certainly do not believe that games and the internet will escape without some stabs in their general directions. As others have already said, this is certainly not the place to throw blame with this never-ending 'it-wasn't-my-fault-so-it-must-have-been-theirs-an d-they-must-pay' mentality.
Goodness, that was rather uncalled for. I merely criticized his method. All arguing about the issue of drugs aside, I thought his post was inflamatory and offensive. It pales next to your diatribe, however:
Oh, great, you're an hysterical anti-smoking puritan
Which of my words were you responding to? What did I say to make you think I even argue against smoking? I merely criticized his unqualified dismissal of the other side (It seems to me he also criticizes unqualified opinions).
BTW, Do you argue that there are no dangers to smoking? Do you dare claim that smoking does not cause lung cancer, emphisema, and other miseries? I know people who are dying of these things, and the fact is that they would probably not be if they had not smoked for so much of their lives.
You're a willing (in fact enthusiastic) slave. Congratulations. I'm sure you're proud of that achievement. It's all you'll ever achieve, so you may as well enjoy what you've got.
I struggle to understand what I could have possibly said to provoke this. The only answer I can think of on my own is that I stepped on an open nerve, or happened upon someone who was extremely defensive. This must be what they call flame. I can understand why many people hesitate to post comments on slashdot.
I am open to criticism, and I welcome your response to this. Try to be reasonable though; I've done my best.
In your rather inflamatory satire you dismiss the opinions of those who argue the dangers of drugs with nothing more than mockery.
Further, to say that having not 'experienced' drugs disqualifies these arguements is tantamount to dismissing the dangers of smoking or drinking and driving by claiming that those who recognize them have never smoked or driven drunk.
My apolgies for spelling errors (When do we get real-time spell-checking?:)
Yes, sysadmins are powerful, but they're not the only people who could cause terrible things by abusing their power. That's why air-traffic controllers/can't/ strike.
Several things (most of which have already been said, but I thought I'd put them together):
1) This is a tape drive. That means/linear/ access, and probably awful seek times.
2) The sizes they list are compressed sizes; however, mp3s are already compressed. You probably wouldn't be able to squeeze much more than 15G on one of these tapes.
3) The read speeds they list are native, which means compressed data will probably not be available this fast.
Overall, this drive seems to be being hyped for something that it is not. Maybe it's a nice cheap fast 'solution' for backing up large servers and stuff, but for PC usage, it is much less practical.
I think perhaps instead of accumulating a pile of points, each poster should have an average score, which would be his default score. That way if a comment of his was moderated down, his average score would be lowered, but if he usually posted lots of good stuff it wouldn't hurt his rating.
However, since a single good comment might give someone an average rating of 4 instantly, there might be a minimum number of comments before certain ratings could be reached. i.e. Must have 3 comments to receive a default rating of 2, 7 for 3, 12 for 4, and 20 for 5. Something along that line.
I thought this was a well-written article, but the headline 'Discussion of Linux Limitations' was a little misleading. Perhaps future columns in this series will conform more to this, but the one linked was really just anti-FUD.
Slashdot Mirror
This has worked well (according to all reports, I'm not living here enough longer to justify it) in Arkansas. Check out official info at www.donotcall.org.
There is no such senator (or well known politician of any kind of which I'm aware) from Arkansas. Perhaps someone meant Arizona (AZ).
So many people (especially computer people) confuse knowledge with intelligence. Knowing how to use a computer does not make you smart. Further, and more importantly, it does NOT make you a better person than anyone else. Fight arrogance. Teach kids to do what it takes to excell and not be pompous brats about it.
Thank you for your time.
Perhaps I spoke out of ignorance. I have /never/ seen anything of that sort in any school I have attended. That is of course not a representative sample of the schools of the nation.
I do have some questions however:
Did the kids who got pushed around (especially the ones who were really injured) say something to their teachers/administrators/teachers?
Was such violence really ignored?
If the answers to these questions is yes, then I submit that this is nothing short of scandalous. Letters should be written, legal action taken, and even protests staged. The time to say something is now, while attention is still drawn to such matters by the present disaster.
If, however, the abused kids said nothing to anyone (or if their parents didn't take teachers and administrators to task), then this becomes a much different issue. Kids should be taught to stand up for themselves (no, not by fighting physically) the way they will have to in the real world - by bringing problems to the attention of those in charge, and, if necessary, following the chain of command until something happens.
High school and junior high kids have felt rejected by their peers since the beginning of time. The fact is that this is an insecure age for a lot of people, and most of them don't have enough experience living to realize that it has happened to everyone. Thus, young kids think that their own individual suffering at the hands of is a fresh pain felt only by them, and that it makes them different from other people. To encourage this by saying that they are 'voiceless kids,' is not healthy. They are only voiceless if they talk to no one.
This is not at all to say that the things happening to people lately are all good. Some people are certainly misundertanding the shootings and what they mean; however, this does not justify self-pity or self-alienation.
And to all of the people out there who are feeling under things -- don't sweat it, things'll get better; however, they won't if you don't want them too. Just do your best to do what you believe in, and don't worry about what people say.
That comment should be moderated up. It's the most succinctly put expression of what I've been thinking about this article since I saw it. There's no reason to be so militantly defensive, or to accuse everyone of accusing.
n d-they-must-pay' mentality.
That said, I certainly do not believe that games and the internet will escape without some stabs in their general directions. As others have already said, this is certainly not the place to throw blame with this never-ending 'it-wasn't-my-fault-so-it-must-have-been-theirs-a
Goodness, that was rather uncalled for. I merely criticized his method. All arguing about the issue of drugs aside, I thought his post was inflamatory and offensive. It pales next to your diatribe, however:
Oh, great, you're an hysterical anti-smoking puritan
Which of my words were you responding to? What did I say to make you think I even argue against smoking? I merely criticized his unqualified dismissal of the other side (It seems to me he also criticizes unqualified opinions).
BTW, Do you argue that there are no dangers to smoking? Do you dare claim that smoking does not cause lung cancer, emphisema, and other miseries? I know people who are dying of these things, and the fact is that they would probably not be if they had not smoked for so much of their lives.
You're a willing (in fact enthusiastic) slave. Congratulations. I'm sure you're proud of that achievement. It's all you'll ever achieve, so you may as well enjoy what you've got.
I struggle to understand what I could have possibly said to provoke this. The only answer I can think of on my own is that I stepped on an open nerve, or happened upon someone who was extremely defensive. This must be what they call flame. I can understand why many people hesitate to post comments on slashdot.
I am open to criticism, and I welcome your response to this. Try to be reasonable though; I've done my best.
In your rather inflamatory satire you dismiss the opinions of those who argue the dangers of drugs with nothing more than mockery.
:)
Further, to say that having not 'experienced' drugs disqualifies these arguements is tantamount to dismissing the dangers of smoking or drinking and driving by claiming that those who recognize them have never smoked or driven drunk.
My apolgies for spelling errors (When do we get real-time spell-checking?
Maybe The Matrix wasn't so far off...
Yes, sysadmins are powerful, but they're not the only people who could cause terrible things by abusing their power. That's why air-traffic controllers /can't/ strike.
Several things (most of which have already been said, but I thought I'd put them together):
/linear/ access, and probably awful seek times.
1) This is a tape drive. That means
2) The sizes they list are compressed sizes; however, mp3s are already compressed. You probably wouldn't be able to squeeze much more than 15G on one of these tapes.
3) The read speeds they list are native, which means compressed data will probably not be available this fast.
Overall, this drive seems to be being hyped for something that it is not. Maybe it's a nice cheap fast 'solution' for backing up large servers and stuff, but for PC usage, it is much less practical.
I think perhaps instead of accumulating a pile of points, each poster should have an average score, which would be his default score. That way if a comment of his was moderated down, his average score would be lowered, but if he usually posted lots of good stuff it wouldn't hurt his rating.
However, since a single good comment might give someone an average rating of 4 instantly, there might be a minimum number of comments before certain ratings could be reached. i.e. Must have 3 comments to receive a default rating of 2, 7 for 3, 12 for 4, and 20 for 5. Something along that line.
Hope this helps...
I thought this was a well-written article, but the headline 'Discussion of Linux Limitations' was a little misleading. Perhaps future columns in this series will conform more to this, but the one linked was really just anti-FUD.