My initial reaction to this suit is to be disappointed. This pretty much ends any chance of AOL getting involved in Linux in the near future, even though we sort of already knew that. Now it is against AOL's interest for Linux to be a viable alternative to MS. Betcha we get more leaked internal FUD from MS about how Linux is such a threat.
AOLTWCNNTIME is already a conglomerate, so turning it into AOLDTWCNNTIMERHAT won't add any more, but what I find interesting about this whole thing is that the AOL conglomerate may have found a way around the MS MSN MSNBC XBOX conglomerate. As the CNET article mentions, AOL couldn't come to a deal to get an AOL icon on the XP desktop so they have to deal with the OEMs. That's a telling detail. AOL may be the single largest victim of the MS monopoly now, rather than Sun or someone like that, because MS is using things like the default "page not found", the MSN messenger, and so on, in an attempt to cripple AOL's business.
A lot of times I see the whole thing instinctively as a battle between MS and Linux, but AOL vs MS is the title bout.
AOL could be therefore be the real winner of a battle in which Linux, any Linux ends the MS desktop monopoly. AOL is the perfect company to bring real user friendliness to a distro.
Young people use MSN Messenger and Hotmail, because it is free and they can use it from anywhere, and all their friends are on MSN Mesenger. AOL IM is unheard of in my town. I don't know a single middle school or high school student here who uses AOL IM, or a single studentt who doesn't use MSN.
If I was an AOL exec, I would be very worried about that.
It's okay to condescend to people who use windows or AOL, but must we condescend to Linux users, too?
Yes, it must happen. Absolutely must happen if we want the people who use Win or AOL to become the people who use Linux.
There is no reason I can think of that the OSS movement should want to perpetuate the digital divide with the geek-gap by saying only persons who can afford to become geeks deserve free software. Everyone else must pay MS to dumb it down for them so they can use it.
The beauty of OSS is that the power user and the novice can play in the same sandbox, if the geeks are willing to go the extra mile to share their toys. Just because there's a kernel config wizard doesnt mean you can't still roll yer own, ya know. Not like in the M$/Mac world where someone makes the decision for you.
It may not be life-threatening that you or someone you hire cannot fix your software, but that's not the point. The point is that Word is becoming (or already is) the de facto standard, which makes it difficult to operate in society or business without paying the M$tax.
The government brought electricity to the sticks in the US during the Depression. The REC helped make rural electricity affordable, which helped jumpstart the economy by spurring demand for all the stuff that runs on electricity and all the stuff that makes electricity.
A government program for Rural Broadbandification would provide many of the same benefits today.
Yeah, I went to an educational technology conference once, and this guy was trying to sell me on a really bitchin' firewall that would keep out all those pesky hackers. That doesn't do a lot of good when the hackers are your users. Just a few of my own fond memories... when the new iMac's came out they had a drawer cd-rom where the cd mechaniwsm came out with the drawer, so within a week and a half all the mechanisms were long gone... Mouseballs have a shelf life of about a week, if you are lucky...pencils are made for breaking off in fdd's...And why do they put knobs on monitors? I need monitors that are only software controllable so they can be LOCKED (anyone know of such an animal? there must be some)...
I think you have it backward. Teaching skills is a means of applying learning. You can teach "knowledge" until you're blue in the face, and the kid won't really learn it until it is applied. I agree that any specific skillset is not the ultimate goal, but I believe acquiring skills is essential to the any higher level learning because applying the learning as you go is where the real "education" takes place.
I'm hoping that the LTSP for education project is going to be the killer app for people's "why learn another OS" problems. One thing schools have plenty of is obsolete hardware. If we can start using the old junk as web surfing terminals we are on the way...
The school sysadmins I've known are up to their ears right now, and most of them are basically Apple admins who can also work in Windoze. Adding a third OS to the mix now is unlikely to happen on a large scale.
I don't know if this was true in the past, but I just so happen to have recent experience with a GW2k restore CD, and it did a fine job of restoring Win98se without destroying any nonWin data. It gives you some choices when the restore begins, and you just click on the box that says something like "Restore Win98 without deleting your files". This was on a box that I wasn't going to waste much time on, so I was pleasantly surprised that it also had an checkbox option that allowed it to install completely without having to acknowledge any "Do you want to restart now" alerts or anything. You do lose all of your Windoze settings, though, and you have to delete all those damned "Click here for AOL!" icons, so it wasn't completely painfree.
I lost a couple of hours that I'll never get back because somewhere along the line between the writing of the howto and the RH7.2 release, "modules.conf" got changed to "conf.modules".
And I've seen configuration abbreviated as "cnf", "conf", and "config". There are probably others.
Maybe your Debian box is Coherent, but Linux overall is not.
Usability will certainly improve, and I am enjoying my learning process, but average lusers are simply unable to navigate Linux.
Windows is still FAR easier to install and use than Linux. Sorry to say, but I've been trying for MONTHS to get any version of Linux to work on an old box here. Mandrake the great installer would not install at all because it would lock out the mouse. I was able to get RH7.1 to run, but couldn't get the NIC to work, and I've been working for some time now to get any NIC to work under RH7.2..
I'm no computer wiz, but I'm probably in the top 5% of all computer users, and Linux makes me feel like I'm getting my ass fragged in the multiplayer game.
If you are interesteed in some of the saga of my NIC, see http://www.linuxnewbie.org/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimate bb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=005626
But what about that 1% of real mail that goes to the spam can? I can't risk losing a real email every two or three days, so I'm still going to have to sift through all the spam. If you can get that down to 1 a year or so, then it might be acceptable for my purposes.
When I was about 12 or so, I was watchign the perseids, and saw the biggest darn meteor I've ever seen; it streaked brightly across a long stretch of the sky, and I SWEAR it WHISTLED. I had long thought that I must have been imagining that whistle, but now maybe not...
It is my understanding that sharing music is expressly legal, even if it is copyrighted. The problem with Napster, if I understood it right, is that it is illegal to make money from copying copyrighted music.
There have been some attempts at foot pedal controls, and I think that would be useful, for one. I hate having to take my hands off the keyboard to find the mouse. Also, a mouse device that would actually work in 3 dimensions rather emulating it would be great. That is, add a z dimension so that something would happen when you raised your arm off the table (don't ask me what or how, though). I know these are not exactly revolutionary ideas, but it would be am improvement over what we have now.
I agree with all of you that say that "understanding" is the real goal of education. Whether you call it critical thinking, synthesis, problem solving, or whatever, we're all trying to get kids to understand what they are doing rather than simply regurgitating the answers that we want from them. I'm talking about k-12 because the post I was replying to above stated that computers shouldn't even be introduced, except for computer theory and technology per se, until college. The point I'm trying to make is that computer skills are essential (if you don't agree with that then don't use a computer to respond to me) and schools are expected to produce technologically literate graduates, so that means that something has to be deleted from the curriculum to make room for the new material. The most obvious choice of what to delete is anything that is obsolete. Sliderules are obsolete, obviously, but there are other things that are de facto obsolete, but that hang on in the curriculum forever even though they will never be used in the real world by real people who are not mathemeticians or engineers. Yes, it is important to teach an understanding of math concepts, but does it really matter to an employer if a person can use a pencil and paper to find a square root? For most people in most jobs today, it doesn't matter how you get the answer as long as you get it. The real skill that employers need is the ability to APPLY math concepts. What I have found very frustrating is that many students who can add and subtract fractions in their heads cannot read a ruler in shop class because they cannot make the connection between fractions in their math book and the real world fractions on the rule. Same thing with finding dimensions of right triangles or applying geometry concepts to CAD drawings. Real understanding for most people does not come from doing math problems on paper, it comes from applying concepts to real world situations. It is my humble opinion that we should aim to teach application rather than theory, because it is from applying concepts that we actually come to understand concepts. When your CS profs said that the theory transcends technology, they were probably right, but MOST people don't understand from theory, they understand from application, and then they can relate theory to the applications they have made.
Has anyone come out with a decent way to point in 3D space? Mouses/mice/whatever that you can use to manipulate 3D images in CAD would be handy, for example.
If I recall right, NASA used to have fighter jets out there to ensure clear air space for some distance around the Cape. I doubt if you would call it a formal "flight plan", but I'm sure that air traffic control is aware of all launches.
The baloon guy made it down alive, didn't he? I think his only major problem was that he dropped his bb gun so he couldn't shoot he balloons as planned. It wasn't until later that he killed himself. You can't expect someone who would tie a bunch of baloons to a lawn chair and launch himself to 4k ft to be all stable all the time, you know. At least he had something to write about on his tombstone.
Even if [insert totalitarian country here] did attempt to block all foreign packets, this technology or Freenet's version is still a vital means of publishing information without going through the government filter. And it only takes one leak in or out to cirumvent attempts at blocking, anyway, because the info could then be stored in the Peekabooty system within the country.
Slashdot Mirror
My initial reaction to this suit is to be disappointed. This pretty much ends any chance of AOL getting involved in Linux in the near future, even though we sort of already knew that. Now it is against AOL's interest for Linux to be a viable alternative to MS. Betcha we get more leaked internal FUD from MS about how Linux is such a threat.
We need no more conglomerates
AOLTWCNNTIME is already a conglomerate, so turning it into AOLDTWCNNTIMERHAT won't add any more, but what I find interesting about this whole thing is that the AOL conglomerate may have found a way around the MS MSN MSNBC XBOX conglomerate. As the CNET article mentions, AOL couldn't come to a deal to get an AOL icon on the XP desktop so they have to deal with the OEMs. That's a telling detail. AOL may be the single largest victim of the MS monopoly now, rather than Sun or someone like that, because MS is using things like the default "page not found", the MSN messenger, and so on, in an attempt to cripple AOL's business.
A lot of times I see the whole thing instinctively as a battle between MS and Linux, but AOL vs MS is the title bout.
AOL could be therefore be the real winner of a battle in which Linux, any Linux ends the MS desktop monopoly. AOL is the perfect company to bring real user friendliness to a distro.
Young people use MSN Messenger and Hotmail, because it is free and they can use it from anywhere, and all their friends are on MSN Mesenger. AOL IM is unheard of in my town. I don't know a single middle school or high school student here who uses AOL IM, or a single studentt who doesn't use MSN.
If I was an AOL exec, I would be very worried about that.
It's okay to condescend to people who use windows or AOL, but must we condescend to Linux users, too?
Yes, it must happen. Absolutely must happen if we want the people who use Win or AOL to become the people who use Linux.
There is no reason I can think of that the OSS movement should want to perpetuate the digital divide with the geek-gap by saying only persons who can afford to become geeks deserve free software. Everyone else must pay MS to dumb it down for them so they can use it.
The beauty of OSS is that the power user and the novice can play in the same sandbox, if the geeks are willing to go the extra mile to share their toys. Just because there's a kernel config wizard doesnt mean you can't still roll yer own, ya know. Not like in the M$/Mac world where someone makes the decision for you.
It may not be life-threatening that you or someone you hire cannot fix your software, but that's not the point. The point is that Word is becoming (or already is) the de facto standard, which makes it difficult to operate in society or business without paying the M$tax.
The government brought electricity to the sticks in the US during the Depression. The REC helped make rural electricity affordable, which helped jumpstart the economy by spurring demand for all the stuff that runs on electricity and all the stuff that makes electricity.
A government program for Rural Broadbandification would provide many of the same benefits today.
You have to catch 'em first. There are too many of them and not enough of us.
Yeah, I went to an educational technology conference once, and this guy was trying to sell me on a really bitchin' firewall that would keep out all those pesky hackers. That doesn't do a lot of good when the hackers are your users. Just a few of my own fond memories... when the new iMac's came out they had a drawer cd-rom where the cd mechaniwsm came out with the drawer, so within a week and a half all the mechanisms were long gone... Mouseballs have a shelf life of about a week, if you are lucky...pencils are made for breaking off in fdd's...And why do they put knobs on monitors? I need monitors that are only software controllable so they can be LOCKED (anyone know of such an animal? there must be some)...
I think you have it backward. Teaching skills is a means of applying learning. You can teach "knowledge" until you're blue in the face, and the kid won't really learn it until it is applied. I agree that any specific skillset is not the ultimate goal, but I believe acquiring skills is essential to the any higher level learning because applying the learning as you go is where the real "education" takes place.
I'm hoping that the LTSP for education project is going to be the killer app for people's "why learn another OS" problems. One thing schools have plenty of is obsolete hardware. If we can start using the old junk as web surfing terminals we are on the way...
The school sysadmins I've known are up to their ears right now, and most of them are basically Apple admins who can also work in Windoze. Adding a third OS to the mix now is unlikely to happen on a large scale.
I don't know if this was true in the past, but I just so happen to have recent experience with a GW2k restore CD, and it did a fine job of restoring Win98se without destroying any nonWin data. It gives you some choices when the restore begins, and you just click on the box that says something like "Restore Win98 without deleting your files". This was on a box that I wasn't going to waste much time on, so I was pleasantly surprised that it also had an checkbox option that allowed it to install completely without having to acknowledge any "Do you want to restart now" alerts or anything. You do lose all of your Windoze settings, though, and you have to delete all those damned "Click here for AOL!" icons, so it wasn't completely painfree.
I lost a couple of hours that I'll never get back because somewhere along the line between the writing of the howto and the RH7.2 release, "modules.conf" got changed to "conf.modules".
And I've seen configuration abbreviated as "cnf", "conf", and "config". There are probably others.
Maybe your Debian box is Coherent, but Linux overall is not.
Usability will certainly improve, and I am enjoying my learning process, but average lusers are simply unable to navigate Linux.
Windows is still FAR easier to install and use than Linux. Sorry to say, but I've been trying for MONTHS to get any version of Linux to work on an old box here. Mandrake the great installer would not install at all because it would lock out the mouse. I was able to get RH7.1 to run, but couldn't get the NIC to work, and I've been working for some time now to get any NIC to work under RH7.2..
e bb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=005626
I'm no computer wiz, but I'm probably in the top 5% of all computer users, and Linux makes me feel like I'm getting my ass fragged in the multiplayer game.
If you are interesteed in some of the saga of my NIC, see http://www.linuxnewbie.org/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimat
But what about that 1% of real mail that goes to the spam can? I can't risk losing a real email every two or three days, so I'm still going to have to sift through all the spam. If you can get that down to 1 a year or so, then it might be acceptable for my purposes.
When I was about 12 or so, I was watchign the perseids, and saw the biggest darn meteor I've ever seen; it streaked brightly across a long stretch of the sky, and I SWEAR it WHISTLED. I had long thought that I must have been imagining that whistle, but now maybe not...
Look up the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (I think tha'ts what it was called). You will find that non-commercial copying is not actionable.
It is my understanding that sharing music is expressly legal, even if it is copyrighted. The problem with Napster, if I understood it right, is that it is illegal to make money from copying copyrighted music.
There have been some attempts at foot pedal controls, and I think that would be useful, for one. I hate having to take my hands off the keyboard to find the mouse. Also, a mouse device that would actually work in 3 dimensions rather emulating it would be great. That is, add a z dimension so that something would happen when you raised your arm off the table (don't ask me what or how, though). I know these are not exactly revolutionary ideas, but it would be am improvement over what we have now.
I agree with all of you that say that "understanding" is the real goal of education. Whether you call it critical thinking, synthesis, problem solving, or whatever, we're all trying to get kids to understand what they are doing rather than simply regurgitating the answers that we want from them. I'm talking about k-12 because the post I was replying to above stated that computers shouldn't even be introduced, except for computer theory and technology per se, until college. The point I'm trying to make is that computer skills are essential (if you don't agree with that then don't use a computer to respond to me) and schools are expected to produce technologically literate graduates, so that means that something has to be deleted from the curriculum to make room for the new material. The most obvious choice of what to delete is anything that is obsolete. Sliderules are obsolete, obviously, but there are other things that are de facto obsolete, but that hang on in the curriculum forever even though they will never be used in the real world by real people who are not mathemeticians or engineers. Yes, it is important to teach an understanding of math concepts, but does it really matter to an employer if a person can use a pencil and paper to find a square root? For most people in most jobs today, it doesn't matter how you get the answer as long as you get it. The real skill that employers need is the ability to APPLY math concepts. What I have found very frustrating is that many students who can add and subtract fractions in their heads cannot read a ruler in shop class because they cannot make the connection between fractions in their math book and the real world fractions on the rule. Same thing with finding dimensions of right triangles or applying geometry concepts to CAD drawings. Real understanding for most people does not come from doing math problems on paper, it comes from applying concepts to real world situations. It is my humble opinion that we should aim to teach application rather than theory, because it is from applying concepts that we actually come to understand concepts. When your CS profs said that the theory transcends technology, they were probably right, but MOST people don't understand from theory, they understand from application, and then they can relate theory to the applications they have made.
Has anyone come out with a decent way to point in 3D space? Mouses/mice/whatever that you can use to manipulate 3D images in CAD would be handy, for example.
If I recall right, NASA used to have fighter jets out there to ensure clear air space for some distance around the Cape. I doubt if you would call it a formal "flight plan", but I'm sure that air traffic control is aware of all launches.
The baloon guy made it down alive, didn't he? I think his only major problem was that he dropped his bb gun so he couldn't shoot he balloons as planned. It wasn't until later that he killed himself. You can't expect someone who would tie a bunch of baloons to a lawn chair and launch himself to 4k ft to be all stable all the time, you know. At least he had something to write about on his tombstone.
Even if [insert totalitarian country here] did attempt to block all foreign packets, this technology or Freenet's version is still a vital means of publishing information without going through the government filter. And it only takes one leak in or out to cirumvent attempts at blocking, anyway, because the info could then be stored in the Peekabooty system within the country.
What is the difference between a "real redneck" and a "crazy Texan"?
That solution is against the "no communication rule". No signals allowed.