Why? Give me a good, solid reason why I should download a new program, complete with potential problems, headaches, etc. to replace a perfectly good, functional program? I can't seem to think that the Mozilla developers are kind of like people developing new and better pencils. Except this special pencil is hard to find, takes time to figure out how to use, and does what, exactly, that a regular pencil doesn't do? "Come one and all! See our amazing new pencil! It'll revolutionize the hot, exciting pencil industry!! It'll change the way you use pencils! The lead is softer and the wood is harder! Can you imagine how much more work you could get done with this new pencil? " It's just silly.
Have you ever gone to your local office supply store and seen pencils that aren't made from wood? Guess what, they do exist! The lead comes in a variety of softness/hardness. You can put in enough lead that the same pencil will last at least twice as long as your wooden version. There are even models that give you an eraser that is ten times as large as your old one and it is even faster at removing those erroneous marks. Just why is it you are still using that wooden monstrosity you call a working pencil???
Moving away from your simplistic analogy; what does your current browser do so well? Let's assume it is IE shall we? What is it exactly that you are afraid Firefox won't do just as well if not better?
Myself, I love tabbed browsing and decent cookie management. The download manager is kind of nice too. It's the large list of little tiny features that come together to make Firefox come out leaps and bounds ahead of IE. Things like image blocking, web searching from highlighted text, bookmark keywords, straight-forward options, and javascript that does what the user wants not what the website tells it to.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: Why are you so sure what you have now is "a perfectly good, functional program?" Give Firefox a try it's not like Windows will even let you get rid of IE so you can always go back to that if you really want to.
Most of these responses have made me sick. Granted having everyone in a class surfing the web or playing games (with the sound on) is a huge problem but nothing I've read so far is an acceptable solution. I'm usually one to lurk on this site. But, as a current student at a university with campus wide wifi access, I would like to make a few observations.
1. New technology and exploration Most people (especially those on this site) when given a new piece of technology do explore what can be done with it. This is no different for students. The freshman and transfer students will come to class and "discover" that the internet is available. However, after a few months of having internet anywhere on campus they either a) stay in the lounge instead of coming to class or b) decide that their internet work can wait until the end of class.
2. Maturation We've had laptops and wifi for as long as I've been at this school. Both the wireless network and many of the students have become far more mature in the last two years. I rarely see students who've made it to the Pre-Junior or Junior year (of a five year program) who haven't found a balance to keep their grades up as the classes required (for at least my major) are designed to drop anyone who's not serious about completing this degree work.
3. Time constraints I know I'm in the minority in that I've got terms instead of semesters, but when your class is over in slightly more than two months; it is really quite useful to be able to work on that programming assignment that is due at the end of the week while a professor is introducing the class to the wonderful world of UNIX. (The fact that everyone is required to take such introductory courses is ridiculous, but that's another article in itself.)
4. Draconian methods I find it irredeemable that a college/university or a professor would consider this appropriate, especially before attempting a more polite solution. On slashdot, many of us would condemn an access provider for any type of filtering or blocking. How can we put up with such closed-minded solutions from academia? Such tactics only setup a technological arms race between students and administrators.
5. Recommendations Any serious technology (and probably any) school should be providing their students with laptops and wireless (cards or built-in). This is a small fraction of what the students are paying in tuition and fees already. It also allows the school to make changes to the technology used fairly quickly. If the new technology can use the old infrastructure then the maximum amount of time the school has to wait to make a radical change is five years. Also, the number one reason notes aren't available online according to my instructors is that they can't be sure the students will have access to them. This is solved once the students are all given wireless access and a laptop, even those who are unfortunate enough to only have dial-up at home can still get a large powerpoint presentation or software used for class while on campus and use it from their own laptop.
We should be incorporating responsible use of technology into our classrooms especially at the college level, both the teachers and the students have something to learn from each other and we should encourage cooperation between these groups not engage in antagonistic practices.
Bear in mind I don't have cable but here are my favorites:
Earth: Final Conflict This show started out very well and has lagged after about season 2 but has been interesting throughout. Go count up how many characters they've killed since the beginning... (www.efc.com)
Stargate SG-1 I've read the books, seen the movie, and I just can't get enough of this show or the series of books by Bill McCay.
Dark Angel I can't believe I didn't see this in the comments. The plot is a little tired but I still find this to be an excellant show, mostly thanks to Jessica Alba.
Roswell I don't know what it is but I am just hooked on this show.
7 Days Who wouldn't want to go back in time and save the world every week? (Besides it has a good dynamic between the characters.)
The Invisible Man This show makes for some entertaining Saturday night viewing.
Angel The characters make this show.
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Super powers and demons, generally good writing.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Still better than Voyager at times.
Star Trek: Voyager I think they ended this in a very unsatisfying way but I was bored long before it ended.
Charmed Mystical powers just facinate me.
Andromeda When I first heard about this my first thought was "Hercules in space." but I'll give credit where even the tiniest is due. I've been suprised by a few of the episodes.
I'd also like to mention these shows:
Witchblade I want to see the series
Farscape
Lexx
Babylon 5 I missed a big part of the story, but it was good
Space: Above and Beyond I only saw a few episodes but I liked the ones I saw
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine I miss the whole Bejoran/Kardasian/Federation/Dominion setting
M.A.N.T.I.S. Around the time when X-Files came out this was on at the same time, and was a cool show on it's own
X-Files Way back when, the stuff now really sucks
The Outer Limits Since this was on late on Sundays I hardly ever watched it but most of the stories I saw were very good
Slashdot Mirror
Have you ever gone to your local office supply store and seen pencils that aren't made from wood? Guess what, they do exist! The lead comes in a variety of softness/hardness. You can put in enough lead that the same pencil will last at least twice as long as your wooden version. There are even models that give you an eraser that is ten times as large as your old one and it is even faster at removing those erroneous marks. Just why is it you are still using that wooden monstrosity you call a working pencil???
Moving away from your simplistic analogy; what does your current browser do so well? Let's assume it is IE shall we? What is it exactly that you are afraid Firefox won't do just as well if not better?
Myself, I love tabbed browsing and decent cookie management. The download manager is kind of nice too. It's the large list of little tiny features that come together to make Firefox come out leaps and bounds ahead of IE. Things like image blocking, web searching from highlighted text, bookmark keywords, straight-forward options, and javascript that does what the user wants not what the website tells it to.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: Why are you so sure what you have now is "a perfectly good, functional program?" Give Firefox a try it's not like Windows will even let you get rid of IE so you can always go back to that if you really want to.
Most of these responses have made me sick. Granted having everyone in a class surfing the web or playing games (with the sound on) is a huge problem but nothing I've read so far is an acceptable solution. I'm usually one to lurk on this site. But, as a current student at a university with campus wide wifi access, I would like to make a few observations.
1. New technology and exploration
Most people (especially those on this site) when given a new piece of technology do explore what can be done with it. This is no different for students. The freshman and transfer students will come to class and "discover" that the internet is available. However, after a few months of having internet anywhere on campus they either a) stay in the lounge instead of coming to class or b) decide that their internet work can wait until the end of class.
2. Maturation
We've had laptops and wifi for as long as I've been at this school. Both the wireless network and many of the students have become far more mature in the last two years. I rarely see students who've made it to the Pre-Junior or Junior year (of a five year program) who haven't found a balance to keep their grades up as the classes required (for at least my major) are designed to drop anyone who's not serious about completing this degree work.
3. Time constraints
I know I'm in the minority in that I've got terms instead of semesters, but when your class is over in slightly more than two months; it is really quite useful to be able to work on that programming assignment that is due at the end of the week while a professor is introducing the class to the wonderful world of UNIX. (The fact that everyone is required to take such introductory courses is ridiculous, but that's another article in itself.)
4. Draconian methods
I find it irredeemable that a college/university or a professor would consider this appropriate, especially before attempting a more polite solution. On slashdot, many of us would condemn an access provider for any type of filtering or blocking. How can we put up with such closed-minded solutions from academia? Such tactics only setup a technological arms race between students and administrators.
5. Recommendations
Any serious technology (and probably any) school should be providing their students with laptops and wireless (cards or built-in). This is a small fraction of what the students are paying in tuition and fees already. It also allows the school to make changes to the technology used fairly quickly. If the new technology can use the old infrastructure then the maximum amount of time the school has to wait to make a radical change is five years. Also, the number one reason notes aren't available online according to my instructors is that they can't be sure the students will have access to them. This is solved once the students are all given wireless access and a laptop, even those who are unfortunate enough to only have dial-up at home can still get a large powerpoint presentation or software used for class while on campus and use it from their own laptop.
We should be incorporating responsible use of technology into our classrooms especially at the college level, both the teachers and the students have something to learn from each other and we should encourage cooperation between these groups not engage in antagonistic practices.
Bear in mind I don't have cable but here are my favorites:
This show started out very well and has lagged after about season 2 but has been interesting throughout. Go count up how many characters they've killed since the beginning... (www.efc.com)
I've read the books, seen the movie, and I just can't get enough of this show or the series of books by Bill McCay.
I can't believe I didn't see this in the comments. The plot is a little tired but I still find this to be an excellant show, mostly thanks to Jessica Alba.
I don't know what it is but I am just hooked on this show.
Who wouldn't want to go back in time and save the world every week? (Besides it has a good dynamic between the characters.)
This show makes for some entertaining Saturday night viewing.
The characters make this show.
Super powers and demons, generally good writing.
Still better than Voyager at times.
I think they ended this in a very unsatisfying way but I was bored long before it ended.
Mystical powers just facinate me.
When I first heard about this my first thought was "Hercules in space." but I'll give credit where even the tiniest is due. I've been suprised by a few of the episodes.
I'd also like to mention these shows:
I want to see the series
I missed a big part of the story, but it was good
I only saw a few episodes but I liked the ones I saw
I miss the whole Bejoran/Kardasian/Federation/Dominion setting
Around the time when X-Files came out this was on at the same time, and was a cool show on it's own
Way back when, the stuff now really sucks
Since this was on late on Sundays I hardly ever watched it but most of the stories I saw were very good