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Comments · 34

  1. Re:Degree is not the be all on Online vs. Traditional Degrees? · · Score: 1

    Ah, but I've done the same thing through an online course.

    Software Engineering, we had to do a full life cycle project with a team of three people. One of us was in East Tennessee, one in Middle Tennessee, and the other in West Tennessee.

    We decided to treat it like an open source project. Set it up on SourceForge, met at least twice a week online via MS Messenger, sent a butt-load of email, made phone calls, and eventually did two video presentations with the instructor.

    Frankly, I learned a lot about leading a programming team and motivating people that I hadn't learned on the job due mostly to the fact that I couldn't be physically present to the other team members. I had to make them want to do the work.

  2. Re:Classes offered online on Online vs. Traditional Degrees? · · Score: 1

    As someone that is about to finish their entire degree online...yep that's about par for the chemistry course.

    Of course, this was just an intro chemistry course and frankly didn't cover anything in any more depth than what my 8th grade chemistry course covered.

    The intro to physics was cooler though. For that, we had to purchase a physics lab kit that came with a bunch of misc stuff (scales, ball bearings, string, themometer, stop watch, tin foil, weights, string, grpahite rods, glass rods, etc) for doing basic physics experiments. Again, about on par with high school physics, and about what you would expect for an intro course.

    The horror you say. Well, as an IS major (no computer science degree online yet) I don't really need advanced physics. Seriously. Neither do I need advanced chemistry.

    As far as student participation...I don't go to class to talk to other people. I have a full time job, friends and family for that. Neither do I want to listen to the instructor regurgitate what is already in the book, I can read faster than he or she can talk.

  3. Re:Its a matter of perspective on Pay vs. Happiness · · Score: 1

    You're assuming it's greed.

    I've got four kids and a wife who stays at home to mother them.

    That takes a fair bit of money.

    And for the record, we have a 13 inch TV, two older cars (screw it they're paid for) and a modest three bedroom house. So, no payments on the cars or on the latest and greatest gizmo, just mortgage, utilities, groceries and clothes.

    So, I'm on the look-out for a better, not necessarily better paying, job, but I can't afford a pay cut.

  4. Re:Doctors smockters on Doctors Sue Patients for Online Complaints · · Score: 1

    "And there's nobody stopping you from being your own physician."

    Actually there is. There are many drugs that I can't get without a prescription.

  5. Re:Doctors smockters on Doctors Sue Patients for Online Complaints · · Score: 1

    I always bill them for the time myself.

    I give them 10 minutes free, after that I bill them at the reasonable rate of $50 per hour.

    No, none of them have paid, but a lot doctors expect to never pay for anything anyway. Hey they're doctors dammit, we lowly plebes should be happy that they will concede to speak to us at all.

    And before I get flamed, I work for a group of doctors, I know what cheap skates they can be.

  6. Re:Now I understand... on U.S. Government Crafted OSS · · Score: 1

    Looks like you can say Asta-la-vista to their web server too...

  7. Re:Thats the first thing i noticed on Hitchhiker's Movie is Bad, says Adams Biographer · · Score: 1

    You do not need to cheat to solve the HHGTG game. You just need top be patient and slightly "off".

    I still have my "I got the Babel fish" t-shirt around here somewhere, in the same box as my microscopic space fleet, peril sensitive sunglasses and lint.

    But it did take me something like three months to finish that damed game the first time.

  8. Re:April Fools! on Apple Releasing Home Media Center: iHome · · Score: 1

    Or the "Digiatl" port on the back, unless Apple always mis-spells things on their products too.

  9. Had to be said on Astronomers Find Star-Less Galaxy · · Score: 1

    I'll believe it when I see it.

  10. So what they are saying on Subatomic Darwinism · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is that some quantum states are more stable and are more likely to occur at any given moment than others?

    I didn't realize this was new. Maybe the news is that they have a "proof" of this now?

  11. Re:Arguing with a creationist on The Eye: Evolution versus Creationism · · Score: 1

    And in the same vein, just because we can explain it doesn't mean God didn't do it. Every natural phenomenon was once explained by saying "(a) god did it", we now have scientific explanations for most of those. There's no reason to resort to atheism just because we understand the natural process for some things.

  12. Duplicate on Lab creates brain made from rat cells · · Score: 1, Informative
  13. Re:I am so tired of this ridiculous logic on To Mars and Back in Ninety Days · · Score: 1

    Uhhh, yes Gutenberg's motive was profit.

    As was the motive of all the other book producers that sprung up to print the pamphlets of the reformers and to print indulgences. They knew they would sell.

  14. Re:Suggestion- on Centaur - a Four-wheeled Segway · · Score: 1

    Yeah, except ATV's aren't electric and self balancing. Lots of people get hurt every year on regular ATVs.

    They're not that dangerous, but anytime you get something on serious mountain slope bad things are more likely to happen. Plus, living out int the country I tend to get infected with the "Ya'll watch this" idiocy from time to time.

  15. Re:Suggestion- on Centaur - a Four-wheeled Segway · · Score: 1

    But in this case they are solving a problem that does exist. They have a nifty technology that they can't really sell. The centaur would expand the appeal of Segway outside of urban areas.

    While I can't say I would buy one as shown, I would definately consider it depending on how well it'll haul a log around and how well it handles real terrain.

  16. Re:City Redesign on Centaur - a Four-wheeled Segway · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No, but this looks like it might actually be usable outside the city, where I live.

    I can't remember the last time I saw a sidewalk.

  17. Re:PBS Special on Real Presidential Debates · · Score: 2, Informative
  18. PBS Special on Real Presidential Debates · · Score: 1

    There is also a PBS special called "Crashing the Parties 2004" set to air on 29 September that will also explore the non-mainstream parties. They are set to have interviews with Nader and candidates from the Libertarian, Green and Constitution Parties.

    Check you local listings, etc.

  19. Re:Pictures of it happening? on Genesis Capsule Crashes; Chutes Blamed · · Score: 1

    Well, I watched it on NASA TV, and they had a hard time tracking it. It's possible that one of the cameras got footage of the impact, but I doubt it.

    They did have some nice shots of the capsule tumbling through the atmosphere though.

  20. Make Magazine on Hardware Hacking In The WSJ · · Score: 1

    This sort of thing is becoming so common that O'Reilly is coming out with a magazine targetting this audience. The currently sparse site is at http://make.oreilly.com/.

    You can draw your own conclusions from the fact that I already know about it. ;-)

  21. What about in developed countries? on Port-A-Nuke · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a perfect way to distribute power generating capabilities, at a size that makes them less likely to have catastrophic failures.

  22. Way out on SF Author Robert J. Sawyer Looks at 2014 · · Score: 1

    I think he's way too optimistic.

    First, the alarm clock thing. Even if it were available and cheap a lot of people do not get up at the same time as their bed mate.

    Then there's the issue with all these handy dandy devices remembering everything, operating using voice recognition, etc. The hardware will probably be available in ten years time, but the software won't be there yet except as some hacky prototype that works if you're a geek and willing to tinker.

    Plus, there's the bleakness of not interacting with your kids because they're so busy being immersed in their VR homework that saddens me to think of.

    Oh well, I do think he's close to being spot on with the RFID at least.

  23. Re:please everybody..stop on The Subtle Tyranny Of Spreadsheets · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're endangering my revenue stream.

    If it weren't for those organically grown excel/access nightmare programs most companies would never think of hiring a programmer. They hire us after they build those things up to their final catastrophic state and realize that they need somebody to come in a fix it up right.

    I don't know about you, but if it weren't for homegrown messes like that it never would have occurred to me that anyone needed a program to import proposed insurance fee schedules and munge those values against previous fee schedules and usage data to decide whether or not a particular contract was worth considering. That sort of stuff isn't normally on my radar. Thanks Mr. P for building that supersized crappy excel program to do that witt, so I could re-write it!

  24. Re:"less restrictive" is not honest on Doctorow: Ebooks Neither E Nor Books · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, if you bother to read you'll see that it was already under a Creative Commons license, just a more restrictive one that allowed copies to be made and shared, but nothing else.

    The license it is now under allows for pretty much any non-commercial use. Basically, do what ever you want to with it as long as you're not making any money off of it.

  25. Re:Easy. on Geek Eye for the Average Guy · · Score: 1

    And we know you didn't read the article.

    THey did buy a mac.