I totally agree. School is such a waste of time. I didn't really learn anything after I finished my multiplication tables and basic vocabulary courses. History is useless since I heard it's basically rewritten for its audience. Higher math is something geeks use. And my reading and grammar is good enough, better in fact, than most people I've met.
Or I would totally agree, except everytime I talk to someone who hasn't completed high school about science or history, or god help me have to read a cover letter, I can't wait to get away from the ignorance that makes my brain hurt. High school is regimented because aside from a few golden apples, teenagers can't even make their bed in the morning. If you want them to learn something, or teach them how to be rigorous *about* learning something, you need to train your mind to discipline. You need to learn how to learn. Not everything can be answered with a Google search.
Not saying Poland's 50% mandatory attendance rate is more or less effective than the U.S.'s 90% rate. But it'll depend on the person. Anyone who says "it was good enough for me" is saying that from a 100% subjective viewpoint. Take a scientific poll (if you've bothered learning the scientific method) and determine what is actually best. Not "Who has the highest paying job" but perhaps "Who has the most life experience" or something more esoteric.
I guess it's a matter of opinion. I've read some really great short stories in my time from the web. Much better than 99.999% of the edited fantasy books at Borders. I do agree that you'll run across a lot of spelling mistakes if you just pick whatever, but like any review, read it and see where the flaws are. Sometimes the spelling is more than made up for by the characters, plot, script, etc. Heck, ask if you can edit for them -- if you like the story well enough, challenge the person to try to get it published.
I'm guessing that short fiction magazines will just transition to the web. Either advertising or paywalls will keep things going.
There are plenty of short stories out there. You have access to more than you ever have before. They just aren't particularly organized -- just spread out all over the Internet. I've already checked out a couple free ebooks which get reviewed like any other book. Quality, especially in the fiction area, varies wildly...just like it does with corporately published books.
Both of you need to look harder into what the U.S. has done before you point fingers. Guantanamo is just the crunchy shell beneath our chocolaty goodness. Any time you see "embargo" picture thousands of starving people and a rich ruler watching them die.
Wasn't even the point of my original post. Communism isn't the issue. It's the people who run in the name of communism. Communism itself isn't a terrible idea and doesn't involve gulags or mass starvation. Don't confuse the pretty artwork on the cover of the book with the contents. Often they have nothing to do with each other.
That's ok. The old Communism wasn't much of a threat either. But, like Islam, it's an ideal to rally your people (sorry...our people) against. See: liberal, conservative, white, black, rich, poor, east, west, north, south (for that matter), and French for details.
Upload to a website or email yourself the PDF then stick it in iBooks. Or are you thinking you want to plug in a USB cable and drag and drop a PDF onto your device. How...1990s.
Those Seinfeld ads were weird. I did read that one of them, the one with the house full of people, actually represented the Microsoft family of products. I'll have to watch it again -- I think even Bob was in there. But yeah...too strange for the general populous.
MS needs to toss its whole marketing team. The two best commercials they've ever done:
1) The rip-off of "I'm a Mac" adds where the guy points at the polar bear (or was it a whale?) and says, "I'm a PC. And I'm trying to save that." There were more "I'm a PC" examples in that commercial and while not original, they got the point across that it's about the effective tools that MS provides and people use.
2) The Windows 7 Phone "Really?" ad. Clever. 'Nuff said.
Most of their speeches and marketing use industry, not public, buzzwords. They're on the "Our users love the Windows 7 Phone because it allows them to consume content quickly" kick right now. I'm sorry, I don't consume content. I check email. I watch movie trailers. I read Slashdot. I'm a person, not the Blob. If MS wants to market to people and not businesses, they need to target their ads. Two different groups, two different commercials.
I guess the DOT person doesn't visit the Internet forums much. Even on Slashdot, you'll get armchair physicists spouting all sorts of complex and encouraging numerical proofs and you might even believe some of it. Until a mathematician pipes up and corrects them. Or not. I mean, that piece of paper (Professional Engineer) says you took a test and others certify you kinda sorta know what you're doing. There are plenty of people who know what they are doing without that paper. In fact EEs aren't even required to have a PE license. At least, they weren't in 1993.:-)
And me without mod points. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but I imagine there's some group of people who are convincing the mainstream media to air only the unfriendly folks of the Islamic religion. Any extremist belief, be it in a god, policy, linux distro, etc., has the chance to decide they cannot persuade others to choose their path in a logical fashion. So they convince themselves that destruction is a good method. I used to think that there was generally a puppet master or twelve who had ulterior motives to just religious zealotry (money, power, fortune and glory), and these people would use the religious beliefs of others to abide their will (or simply say we'll pay your family X if you blow up A through W).
Lately, I've been thinking there are people who would actually blow themselves and others up in the name of their god. I really hope this isn't true cuz that's just dumb. Like 380 Verbal dumb.
Oh definitely. I've only seen it the twice and both performances had different but good pieces. I found Glinda's humor to be more wry in the British one, and the overall serious tone of Elphaba is less dramatic and a bit more fun also. Also, we saw Alexia Khadime as Elphaba in London and while her voice isn't typical, man she belted out Defying Gravity. Both productions were amazing -- definitely my favorite musical.
The Lord of the Rings movies, of course, were amazing. Perhaps even awesome in the non-valley-girl sense of the word. But there were a couple parts that niggled at me that he could have done differently.
1) "Let's hunt some orc!" ended the first movie (or nearly so) as Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas race off to find the lost hobbits. In the book: "We will make such a chase as shall be accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds: Elves, Dwarves, and Men." I would have liked to have heard the latter, perhaps spoken a bit more sincerely, less shouting. Give it an intense moment.
2) Sam deciding to carry Frodo up the mountain. Again with the shouting. Why not make it, again, a more intense moment, a zoom on Sam and Frodo's faces together and him delivering the line "Then I will carry you" in a hoarse whisper.
Kind of hearkens back to the difference between British and American film making. LOTR, despite being made by a Kiwi, comes across as rather over the top American. To explain, there's a brief scene in the theater production Wicked where the witch and her lover are alone, kneeling together on the ground. She says, "You know. For the first time, I truly feel....wicked." The London version she whispers "wicked" with a devilish grin. The San Francisco version, she hollers it and tackles the guy. Both work, it just depends on what you prefer. I'm a non-laugh-track kind of person. Pirates of the Caribbean 1 did well because of it subtleties, wry looks, and sarcastic humor. 2 & 3 did less well because they went for slapstick comedy and dumped the intelligence.
And here today at lunch I just opened a Twitter account. Sort of shatters your image of people you used to think were pretty cool. Except for Nathan Fillion. He rocks.
Anecdote: David Plouffe (once Obama's campaign manager, now senior advisor) spoke at our university last year. When asked by a student why, now that he was elected, Obama was no longer calling on the nation to do for themselves, "Yes we can!", etc. He completely dismissed (complete with dismissive hand wave) that whole concept of team effort, saying now that the election is done, "It wouldn't work. It just wouldn't." And went onto another topic. My question to him was going to be, "Remember when Joe the Plumber told the news that he felt like he needed a shower when he got off McCain's bus? I don't see Obama being slimy like McCain. You seem to fit the bill though. True?" Ran out of time though.
Agreed. When I read the summary I expected a car carrier (like those trucks that carry new cars to their sales lots). People would pull on for a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles for example and let someone else drive them down I-5. This seems like a neat idea but in practice I'm not sure it's worth a whole lot.
I'm not sure why this keeps coming up. In some cases proprietary software is better. In other cases open source software might be better. You can site a hundred cases for each that involve the initial environment, costs, goals, etc. Each company should look at open source to see if it can meet their needs. Sometimes it's better to pay Microsoft than it is to hire a contract programmer to fire-and-forget customize your product. Perhaps you have some great in-house talent already and they can customize and maintain your projects.
Anyway, to say one is cheaper than the other doesn't mean anything as a blanket statement.
While I appreciate all the advances we're making when it comes to ease of living (remote controls, climate controls, shrink-wrapped pound cake), I think we should consider city and town design over self-driving cars. Before I moved to my current neighborhood, there was a vote by the residents to decide what to do with the gigantic empty lot that was catty corner to the houses. People voted for more houses, rather than something that would have likely been a strip mall (stores with a big parking lot). So now when I'm out of eggs, I need to drive 4 miles round trip to the supermarket, rather than walking around the block to a convenience store.
What I'm saying is, for foodstuffs especially, have smaller delivery trucks and more groceries. That will allow less car traffic and more foot traffic. Have "neighborhood" stores. I do not care if it's less efficient for Safeway to have multiple small locations. I'll pay a couple cents more for everything to avoid the hassle of getting in the car.
You're gonna love it when you start paying European style $7 per gallon, aren't you?
I drive 15,000 miles per year at about 30 MPG. So 500 gallons of gas...times $7. $3500 or $300/month
Hmm...that IS kind of steep. Much more than my property tax but much less than my current gas usage at $150/month plus my property tax. You'd need to go to about $9/gallon to equalize.
Slashdot Mirror
I totally agree. School is such a waste of time. I didn't really learn anything after I finished my multiplication tables and basic vocabulary courses. History is useless since I heard it's basically rewritten for its audience. Higher math is something geeks use. And my reading and grammar is good enough, better in fact, than most people I've met.
Or I would totally agree, except everytime I talk to someone who hasn't completed high school about science or history, or god help me have to read a cover letter, I can't wait to get away from the ignorance that makes my brain hurt. High school is regimented because aside from a few golden apples, teenagers can't even make their bed in the morning. If you want them to learn something, or teach them how to be rigorous *about* learning something, you need to train your mind to discipline. You need to learn how to learn. Not everything can be answered with a Google search.
Not saying Poland's 50% mandatory attendance rate is more or less effective than the U.S.'s 90% rate. But it'll depend on the person. Anyone who says "it was good enough for me" is saying that from a 100% subjective viewpoint. Take a scientific poll (if you've bothered learning the scientific method) and determine what is actually best. Not "Who has the highest paying job" but perhaps "Who has the most life experience" or something more esoteric.
I can run his code on my pet turtle. Man.
I guess it's a matter of opinion. I've read some really great short stories in my time from the web. Much better than 99.999% of the edited fantasy books at Borders. I do agree that you'll run across a lot of spelling mistakes if you just pick whatever, but like any review, read it and see where the flaws are. Sometimes the spelling is more than made up for by the characters, plot, script, etc. Heck, ask if you can edit for them -- if you like the story well enough, challenge the person to try to get it published.
I'm guessing that short fiction magazines will just transition to the web. Either advertising or paywalls will keep things going.
There are plenty of short stories out there. You have access to more than you ever have before. They just aren't particularly organized -- just spread out all over the Internet. I've already checked out a couple free ebooks which get reviewed like any other book. Quality, especially in the fiction area, varies wildly...just like it does with corporately published books.
Both of you need to look harder into what the U.S. has done before you point fingers. Guantanamo is just the crunchy shell beneath our chocolaty goodness. Any time you see "embargo" picture thousands of starving people and a rich ruler watching them die.
Wasn't even the point of my original post. Communism isn't the issue. It's the people who run in the name of communism. Communism itself isn't a terrible idea and doesn't involve gulags or mass starvation. Don't confuse the pretty artwork on the cover of the book with the contents. Often they have nothing to do with each other.
This just in, Islam is not the new Communism.
That's ok. The old Communism wasn't much of a threat either. But, like Islam, it's an ideal to rally your people (sorry...our people) against. See: liberal, conservative, white, black, rich, poor, east, west, north, south (for that matter), and French for details.
Upload to a website or email yourself the PDF then stick it in iBooks. Or are you thinking you want to plug in a USB cable and drag and drop a PDF onto your device. How...1990s.
Those Seinfeld ads were weird. I did read that one of them, the one with the house full of people, actually represented the Microsoft family of products. I'll have to watch it again -- I think even Bob was in there. But yeah...too strange for the general populous.
MS needs to toss its whole marketing team. The two best commercials they've ever done:
1) The rip-off of "I'm a Mac" adds where the guy points at the polar bear (or was it a whale?) and says, "I'm a PC. And I'm trying to save that." There were more "I'm a PC" examples in that commercial and while not original, they got the point across that it's about the effective tools that MS provides and people use.
2) The Windows 7 Phone "Really?" ad. Clever. 'Nuff said.
Most of their speeches and marketing use industry, not public, buzzwords. They're on the "Our users love the Windows 7 Phone because it allows them to consume content quickly" kick right now. I'm sorry, I don't consume content. I check email. I watch movie trailers. I read Slashdot. I'm a person, not the Blob. If MS wants to market to people and not businesses, they need to target their ads. Two different groups, two different commercials.
I guess the DOT person doesn't visit the Internet forums much. Even on Slashdot, you'll get armchair physicists spouting all sorts of complex and encouraging numerical proofs and you might even believe some of it. Until a mathematician pipes up and corrects them. Or not. I mean, that piece of paper (Professional Engineer) says you took a test and others certify you kinda sorta know what you're doing. There are plenty of people who know what they are doing without that paper. In fact EEs aren't even required to have a PE license. At least, they weren't in 1993. :-)
Oh. And you're such an expert.
My toilet came with a Goldman Sachs investor. But I still use Charles Schwab.
And me without mod points. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but I imagine there's some group of people who are convincing the mainstream media to air only the unfriendly folks of the Islamic religion. Any extremist belief, be it in a god, policy, linux distro, etc., has the chance to decide they cannot persuade others to choose their path in a logical fashion. So they convince themselves that destruction is a good method. I used to think that there was generally a puppet master or twelve who had ulterior motives to just religious zealotry (money, power, fortune and glory), and these people would use the religious beliefs of others to abide their will (or simply say we'll pay your family X if you blow up A through W).
Lately, I've been thinking there are people who would actually blow themselves and others up in the name of their god. I really hope this isn't true cuz that's just dumb. Like 380 Verbal dumb.
Oh definitely. I've only seen it the twice and both performances had different but good pieces. I found Glinda's humor to be more wry in the British one, and the overall serious tone of Elphaba is less dramatic and a bit more fun also. Also, we saw Alexia Khadime as Elphaba in London and while her voice isn't typical, man she belted out Defying Gravity. Both productions were amazing -- definitely my favorite musical.
The Lord of the Rings movies, of course, were amazing. Perhaps even awesome in the non-valley-girl sense of the word. But there were a couple parts that niggled at me that he could have done differently.
1) "Let's hunt some orc!" ended the first movie (or nearly so) as Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas race off to find the lost hobbits. In the book: "We will make such a chase as shall be accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds: Elves, Dwarves, and Men." I would have liked to have heard the latter, perhaps spoken a bit more sincerely, less shouting. Give it an intense moment.
2) Sam deciding to carry Frodo up the mountain. Again with the shouting. Why not make it, again, a more intense moment, a zoom on Sam and Frodo's faces together and him delivering the line "Then I will carry you" in a hoarse whisper.
Kind of hearkens back to the difference between British and American film making. LOTR, despite being made by a Kiwi, comes across as rather over the top American. To explain, there's a brief scene in the theater production Wicked where the witch and her lover are alone, kneeling together on the ground. She says, "You know. For the first time, I truly feel....wicked." The London version she whispers "wicked" with a devilish grin. The San Francisco version, she hollers it and tackles the guy. Both work, it just depends on what you prefer. I'm a non-laugh-track kind of person. Pirates of the Caribbean 1 did well because of it subtleties, wry looks, and sarcastic humor. 2 & 3 did less well because they went for slapstick comedy and dumped the intelligence.
Disincentivize with extreme prejudice. Presumably by overwatering the flowerbed by the basement windows.
I can finally read my own comments on the iPhone. Very nice.
And here today at lunch I just opened a Twitter account. Sort of shatters your image of people you used to think were pretty cool. Except for Nathan Fillion. He rocks.
Anecdote: David Plouffe (once Obama's campaign manager, now senior advisor) spoke at our university last year. When asked by a student why, now that he was elected, Obama was no longer calling on the nation to do for themselves, "Yes we can!", etc. He completely dismissed (complete with dismissive hand wave) that whole concept of team effort, saying now that the election is done, "It wouldn't work. It just wouldn't." And went onto another topic. My question to him was going to be, "Remember when Joe the Plumber told the news that he felt like he needed a shower when he got off McCain's bus? I don't see Obama being slimy like McCain. You seem to fit the bill though. True?" Ran out of time though.
Hood: And how long have you been a robber?
Bandit: Four foot one, sir!
Hood: Four foot one! Jolly, jolly good!
"Drupal is oftentimes criticized for having the steepest learning curve."
That award goes to Plone. The curve looks almost like a backwards C.
Agreed. When I read the summary I expected a car carrier (like those trucks that carry new cars to their sales lots). People would pull on for a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles for example and let someone else drive them down I-5. This seems like a neat idea but in practice I'm not sure it's worth a whole lot.
I'm not sure why this keeps coming up. In some cases proprietary software is better. In other cases open source software might be better. You can site a hundred cases for each that involve the initial environment, costs, goals, etc. Each company should look at open source to see if it can meet their needs. Sometimes it's better to pay Microsoft than it is to hire a contract programmer to fire-and-forget customize your product. Perhaps you have some great in-house talent already and they can customize and maintain your projects.
Anyway, to say one is cheaper than the other doesn't mean anything as a blanket statement.
While I appreciate all the advances we're making when it comes to ease of living (remote controls, climate controls, shrink-wrapped pound cake), I think we should consider city and town design over self-driving cars. Before I moved to my current neighborhood, there was a vote by the residents to decide what to do with the gigantic empty lot that was catty corner to the houses. People voted for more houses, rather than something that would have likely been a strip mall (stores with a big parking lot). So now when I'm out of eggs, I need to drive 4 miles round trip to the supermarket, rather than walking around the block to a convenience store.
What I'm saying is, for foodstuffs especially, have smaller delivery trucks and more groceries. That will allow less car traffic and more foot traffic. Have "neighborhood" stores. I do not care if it's less efficient for Safeway to have multiple small locations. I'll pay a couple cents more for everything to avoid the hassle of getting in the car.
Well...they shouldn't apply to the School board...
You're gonna love it when you start paying European style $7 per gallon, aren't you?
I drive 15,000 miles per year at about 30 MPG. So 500 gallons of gas...times $7. $3500 or $300/month
Hmm...that IS kind of steep. Much more than my property tax but much less than my current gas usage at $150/month plus my property tax. You'd need to go to about $9/gallon to equalize.