...are we letting Microsoft dictate our schools' syllabi and curricula?
By the same reasoning, a comparable number of people drive cars and other vehicles. "Vehicular science" is a central aspect, not only of American infrastructure, but also of the American way of life and vital to the US economy. Knowing about vehicles, how they work, how to maintain and service them, etc.should be a priority to ensure that the American economy remains competitive. Shouldn't we be teaching "vehicular science" in schools too?
Microsoft et al. really have no idea of what education is or what it's for. They're confusing it with training. If they're serious about attracting more women to come and work for them, they could start by addressing the overt, ferocious sexism and culture of impunity for sexist acts in their own company, and making it a more attractive environment for women to work in. The thing is, I can just see their senior management coming out with statements like, "I'm not sexist but... "
I would not reduce someone like Eric Schmidt to someone who's just in it for the money. This underestimates how ideology and interests tend to blend. I suspect that for someone like Schmidt working together with the NSA just feels morally right. And people who want to hide things from the NSA well, they're doing something they oughtn't to be doing.
While there is some truth to this (Who doesn't try to rationalise their actions to make themselves feel better about it), I wouldn't underestimate the relentless, intensive sense of urgency of keeping a corporation "competitive" and chasing every opportunity that might pay off and keep it afloat and keeping shareholders happy. I wonder what he says to shareholders and potential investors about collaborating with the NSA? It might be a very different line to the one we get to hear.
So the prophesy is coming true. All hail our great prophet Mike Judge for it is he who spoke the truth in his movie, Idiocracy! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt03... And yay, it shall come to pass that scientists will no longer interest themselves in saving lives and making the world a better place and shall instead devote their attention to preventing hair loss and prolonging erections... and delaying the effects of aging, "leaving your skin feeling visibly younger."
This post was brought to you by Brawndo, the thirst mutilator. Brawndo, it's got electrolytes.
...to do the right thing......after they've exhausted all other possibilities." -- Winston Churchill.
So what kind of "Grapes of Wrath" type trajedy do they have to suffer before they get around to forming effective, coherent policies and plans to deal with the issue? How many neighbouring states will get inundated with drought refugees?
"Me and my parents correlate, because without them, I wouldn't be here."
"I was meticulous about falling off a cliff."
"Mrs. Morrow stimulated the soup."
No, these aren't machine translations, they're human translations. This is what happens when you teach people a foreign language according to associationistic principles (traditional classroom foreign language teaching, AKA "grammar translation"). The learners know what they're saying isn't what a native speaker would say but it's grammatically correct even if it doesn't mean what the speaker wants it to. The main problem is that for language to acquire meaning, it has to be situated, it requires context, purpose, and intent.
Now show me a machine translation system that isn't associationistic, can "read" a situation and understands what the speakers mean to say (pragmatically) rather than what their individual words in combination mean (sematically). When you've done that, you've successfuly created human-like AI, i.e. a machine that can appropriately answer Winograd schemas http://www.cs.nyu.edu/davise/p... and knows that constructions like, "Colourless green ideas sleep furiously" are meaningless.
I bet people will have a lot of fun with Microsoft's translator.
It's worse than most people seem to realise. Schmidt isn't just lying, he's willingly getting Google in deeper with the NSA because, you know, the bottom line: It's very, very profitable (tax payers dollars are always the most profitable source) and the market insists that corporations go where the money is. Google appear to be doing everything they can to get into the international espionage business via their departments like "Google Ideas", which is effectively a department within the US State Department. They consult with governments and corporations to help them with their commercial and political "issues." You know, the kinds of issues that some governments and corporations don't like, such as popular protest movements, environmental campaigning, human rights protection and enforcement, exposing political corruption, etc. Google can provide such governments and corporations with very helpful data on who these "trouble makers" are, where they've been, who they've talked to, and what they may be planning to do next.
Perhaps we should be more insistent when interviewing Schmidt about our data: Is it safe? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... I mean, it's the kind of thing that he's endorsing, enabling, and promoting by getting into bed with the current NSA, CIA, DoJ, and State Department. It's only fair that he should be treated equally.
I also recommend editing the EXIF data on the files themselves. it's the only platform-independent way I've found so far. I do the same with MP3 files.
BTW, Windows Media Player is a pretty good photo organiser and it makes editing EXIF data individually and in bulk easier. After that, you use Shotwell in Linux or some more photo-friendly app to browse them.
How much do you think Disney Inc. are going to pay Facecbook et al. for this advertising adventure? What other massive advertising clients do they have lined up to take advantage of all these kids? How much of that money will go back into Code.org? How's that a non-profit organisation? Just because the law allows it, that doesn't make it right. It's a for-profit advertising platform, whichever way you look at it.
"...with support from the general public."
Yes, Facebook et al. are supported by the general public, i.e. tax payers, because they offshore profits and get enormous tax subsidies.
They'll ignore it the same way they ignore substantial reporting on anything that upsets their master, be it the guy who pays the bills or the government rulers in charge.
Sadly, more than likely true.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Technically that's not a gerund. It's a present participle and so functionally still a verb, which also takes an indirect object ("gerund"), making it even more of a verb. Try, "I am gerunding, destroyer of verbs." Or how about on a different track, "Meaningless verb concepts define saliently."?
Quod Libet seems to handle large MP3 libraries better than anything else I've tried on desktops: https://code.google.com/p/quod... However, a decent MP3 player that handles a large library effectively? Yet to see one.
It's perfectly simple, in corporate speak: "improve iTunes" = "curb competition" therefore "curb competition" is redundant, unnecessary, inefficient and must be eliminated from the declaration of intent.
It's strange that the US pretends that space expeditions are a private enterprise and they expect everyone else to do the same. It's a French national/European project as is the Arianne programme. Of course they're going to use their own programme to pay their own people with money that came from their own tax-payers. That's what democratically elected governments are supposed to do, not implement stuff like NAFTA, TPP, etc. to impoverish your own people for personal financial gain and funding for party political campaigns.
Yes, when I look for an MP3 player, I want storage... lots of it, as well as software and a CPU that can manage that many files effectively and efficiently. I'm using a (Nokia) phone with a 64GB microSD and if I fill it up, the GUI gets sluggish and error prone. With the files I can put on it without it becoming awkward and difficult to use, e.g. wating for it to unfreeze, I have to regularly remove and replace albums and collections to keep my selection varied enough to keep it interesting. I'm not surprised that people who've found a player with lots of storage that works OK want to stick with it.
Oh, yeah. Can't make a claim without citing evidence and anecdotes (like some of the arguments in this thread) don't justify conclusions. One example of many studies of the benefits and risks of vaccine programmes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
The answer is an emphatic yes. How quickly we've forgotten the abject misery, suffering, and loss of the pre-vaccine world. There are still people alive today who've been crippled and nearly died because they weren't vaccinated against now preventable diseases like pertussis (whooping cough), polio, smallpox, etc. Millions used to die every year and nobody was safe from them, not even the rich and powerful. They've only this year managed to eradicate polio from India: http://www.unicef.org/india/he... Vaccines are safer than a multitude of over-the-counter pharma products.
BTW, if you're thinking of visiting frail and infirm family and friends this winter, make sure you get vaccinated against flu. Flu still kills around 1 Million people every year. How would you like to have their premature deaths on your conscience?
I guess people in the US are so aversed to the idea of the nanny state and the gubbermint telling them what to do for their own benefit that corporations have had to step in to fill the poor impulse control and diminished responsibility void. Great, now people in the US can get their moral advice from egocentric, autistic, sociopathic corporations instead.
Code.org's and KhanAcademy.org's curricula are a joke. They have next to no educational benefit and may do more to put children off software engineering and computer science than attract them to it.
What's code.org's business model? How do they suppose they'll make money out of their venture? They'll do what most web companies do; sell advertising of course. Zuckerberg et al. are already signing up the likes of Disney Inc. for some lucrative contracts to sell merchandise to kiddies. Too bad the public won't be any the wiser until it's too late. Expect some belated indiginant outrage from the same press who are singing Zuckerberg et al's praises at the moment. The con-men will have moved on to their next mark by then.
Ianal, but even the definition they put in their FAQ states that intent to harm the advertiser is click fraud. The do not track purpose seems like a thin veil over causing massive amounts of false clicks that harm their advertising revenue. We should certainly be able to block what gets served to our computers, but this add-on definitely crosses the line.
That would make it civil disobedience and protest then. It would only be criminal fraud if the intention was for a competitor to gain an advantage, to demand payments for it to stop, or to extract more money from advertising agencies' clients, which AdNauseum doesn't do. It'll be interesting to see how this gets treated by the press who have a vested interest in online advertising.
Even the most average 2 yr. old human is vastly more intelligent than the most cultured of monkeys.
Chimpanzees typically have superior spatial visualization ability to humans of any age. They'll outperform us in solving physical-spatial problems and puzzles any day of the week... well, as long as there's a food reward at the end of it.
The simplest feasible explanation is that the Bush regime made huge amounts of funding and credit available to defence software and IT subcontractors to develop this stuff. They're now taking govt./publicly funded R&D and selling some highly questionable tools to oppressive regimes around the world. So the govt./public funds the R&D and the subcontractors sell it at a profit. I think you can call that profiteering... or racketeering... or whatever you like. It's how they operate: Everything to do with war and resource extraction is a dirty business.
The Swiss have defended themselves by first, being in a place no one really wants, and second, by arming every citizen. That's why their neutrality has worked.
I think the Swiss stayed neutral by keeping everyone's money for them and allowing them to make secretive transactions for arms, oil, and to hide fortunes amassed by individuals in times of war (the spoils of war). Without banks like these, you can't wage wars effectively so the banking states/havens are always safe and secure.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder what Kim Jong-Un would do with this power? Anything different from the MPAA?
...are we letting Microsoft dictate our schools' syllabi and curricula?
By the same reasoning, a comparable number of people drive cars and other vehicles. "Vehicular science" is a central aspect, not only of American infrastructure, but also of the American way of life and vital to the US economy. Knowing about vehicles, how they work, how to maintain and service them, etc.should be a priority to ensure that the American economy remains competitive. Shouldn't we be teaching "vehicular science" in schools too?
Microsoft et al. really have no idea of what education is or what it's for. They're confusing it with training. If they're serious about attracting more women to come and work for them, they could start by addressing the overt, ferocious sexism and culture of impunity for sexist acts in their own company, and making it a more attractive environment for women to work in. The thing is, I can just see their senior management coming out with statements like, "I'm not sexist but... "
I would not reduce someone like Eric Schmidt to someone who's just in it for the money. This underestimates how ideology and interests tend to blend. I suspect that for someone like Schmidt working together with the NSA just feels morally right. And people who want to hide things from the NSA well, they're doing something they oughtn't to be doing.
While there is some truth to this (Who doesn't try to rationalise their actions to make themselves feel better about it), I wouldn't underestimate the relentless, intensive sense of urgency of keeping a corporation "competitive" and chasing every opportunity that might pay off and keep it afloat and keeping shareholders happy. I wonder what he says to shareholders and potential investors about collaborating with the NSA? It might be a very different line to the one we get to hear.
So the prophesy is coming true. All hail our great prophet Mike Judge for it is he who spoke the truth in his movie, Idiocracy! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt03... And yay, it shall come to pass that scientists will no longer interest themselves in saving lives and making the world a better place and shall instead devote their attention to preventing hair loss and prolonging erections... and delaying the effects of aging, "leaving your skin feeling visibly younger."
This post was brought to you by Brawndo, the thirst mutilator. Brawndo, it's got electrolytes.
Wait till they create AI that goes shopping.
...to do the right thing... ...after they've exhausted all other possibilities." -- Winston Churchill.
So what kind of "Grapes of Wrath" type trajedy do they have to suffer before they get around to forming effective, coherent policies and plans to deal with the issue? How many neighbouring states will get inundated with drought refugees?
"Me and my parents correlate, because without them, I wouldn't be here."
"I was meticulous about falling off a cliff."
"Mrs. Morrow stimulated the soup."
No, these aren't machine translations, they're human translations. This is what happens when you teach people a foreign language according to associationistic principles (traditional classroom foreign language teaching, AKA "grammar translation"). The learners know what they're saying isn't what a native speaker would say but it's grammatically correct even if it doesn't mean what the speaker wants it to. The main problem is that for language to acquire meaning, it has to be situated, it requires context, purpose, and intent.
Now show me a machine translation system that isn't associationistic, can "read" a situation and understands what the speakers mean to say (pragmatically) rather than what their individual words in combination mean (sematically). When you've done that, you've successfuly created human-like AI, i.e. a machine that can appropriately answer Winograd schemas http://www.cs.nyu.edu/davise/p... and knows that constructions like, "Colourless green ideas sleep furiously" are meaningless.
I bet people will have a lot of fun with Microsoft's translator.
It's worse than most people seem to realise. Schmidt isn't just lying, he's willingly getting Google in deeper with the NSA because, you know, the bottom line: It's very, very profitable (tax payers dollars are always the most profitable source) and the market insists that corporations go where the money is. Google appear to be doing everything they can to get into the international espionage business via their departments like "Google Ideas", which is effectively a department within the US State Department. They consult with governments and corporations to help them with their commercial and political "issues." You know, the kinds of issues that some governments and corporations don't like, such as popular protest movements, environmental campaigning, human rights protection and enforcement, exposing political corruption, etc. Google can provide such governments and corporations with very helpful data on who these "trouble makers" are, where they've been, who they've talked to, and what they may be planning to do next.
Perhaps we should be more insistent when interviewing Schmidt about our data: Is it safe? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... I mean, it's the kind of thing that he's endorsing, enabling, and promoting by getting into bed with the current NSA, CIA, DoJ, and State Department. It's only fair that he should be treated equally.
I also recommend editing the EXIF data on the files themselves. it's the only platform-independent way I've found so far. I do the same with MP3 files.
BTW, Windows Media Player is a pretty good photo organiser and it makes editing EXIF data individually and in bulk easier. After that, you use Shotwell in Linux or some more photo-friendly app to browse them.
How much do you think Disney Inc. are going to pay Facecbook et al. for this advertising adventure? What other massive advertising clients do they have lined up to take advantage of all these kids? How much of that money will go back into Code.org? How's that a non-profit organisation? Just because the law allows it, that doesn't make it right. It's a for-profit advertising platform, whichever way you look at it.
"...with support from the general public."
Yes, Facebook et al. are supported by the general public, i.e. tax payers, because they offshore profits and get enormous tax subsidies.
They'll ignore it the same way they ignore substantial reporting on anything that upsets their master, be it the guy who pays the bills or the government rulers in charge.
Sadly, more than likely true.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Technically that's not a gerund. It's a present participle and so functionally still a verb, which also takes an indirect object ("gerund"), making it even more of a verb. Try, "I am gerunding, destroyer of verbs." Or how about on a different track, "Meaningless verb concepts define saliently."?
Quod Libet seems to handle large MP3 libraries better than anything else I've tried on desktops: https://code.google.com/p/quod... However, a decent MP3 player that handles a large library effectively? Yet to see one.
It's perfectly simple, in corporate speak: "improve iTunes" = "curb competition" therefore "curb competition" is redundant, unnecessary, inefficient and must be eliminated from the declaration of intent.
It's strange that the US pretends that space expeditions are a private enterprise and they expect everyone else to do the same. It's a French national/European project as is the Arianne programme. Of course they're going to use their own programme to pay their own people with money that came from their own tax-payers. That's what democratically elected governments are supposed to do, not implement stuff like NAFTA, TPP, etc. to impoverish your own people for personal financial gain and funding for party political campaigns.
Did it seriously only take 4 posts to get to Godwin's law?
Yes, when I look for an MP3 player, I want storage... lots of it, as well as software and a CPU that can manage that many files effectively and efficiently. I'm using a (Nokia) phone with a 64GB microSD and if I fill it up, the GUI gets sluggish and error prone. With the files I can put on it without it becoming awkward and difficult to use, e.g. wating for it to unfreeze, I have to regularly remove and replace albums and collections to keep my selection varied enough to keep it interesting. I'm not surprised that people who've found a player with lots of storage that works OK want to stick with it.
Oh, yeah. Can't make a claim without citing evidence and anecdotes (like some of the arguments in this thread) don't justify conclusions. One example of many studies of the benefits and risks of vaccine programmes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
Do the benefits outweigh the costs in this?
The answer is an emphatic yes. How quickly we've forgotten the abject misery, suffering, and loss of the pre-vaccine world. There are still people alive today who've been crippled and nearly died because they weren't vaccinated against now preventable diseases like pertussis (whooping cough), polio, smallpox, etc. Millions used to die every year and nobody was safe from them, not even the rich and powerful. They've only this year managed to eradicate polio from India: http://www.unicef.org/india/he... Vaccines are safer than a multitude of over-the-counter pharma products.
BTW, if you're thinking of visiting frail and infirm family and friends this winter, make sure you get vaccinated against flu. Flu still kills around 1 Million people every year. How would you like to have their premature deaths on your conscience?
I guess people in the US are so aversed to the idea of the nanny state and the gubbermint telling them what to do for their own benefit that corporations have had to step in to fill the poor impulse control and diminished responsibility void. Great, now people in the US can get their moral advice from egocentric, autistic, sociopathic corporations instead.
Code.org's and KhanAcademy.org's curricula are a joke. They have next to no educational benefit and may do more to put children off software engineering and computer science than attract them to it.
What's code.org's business model? How do they suppose they'll make money out of their venture? They'll do what most web companies do; sell advertising of course. Zuckerberg et al. are already signing up the likes of Disney Inc. for some lucrative contracts to sell merchandise to kiddies. Too bad the public won't be any the wiser until it's too late. Expect some belated indiginant outrage from the same press who are singing Zuckerberg et al's praises at the moment. The con-men will have moved on to their next mark by then.
Ianal, but even the definition they put in their FAQ states that intent to harm the advertiser is click fraud. The do not track purpose seems like a thin veil over causing massive amounts of false clicks that harm their advertising revenue. We should certainly be able to block what gets served to our computers, but this add-on definitely crosses the line.
That would make it civil disobedience and protest then. It would only be criminal fraud if the intention was for a competitor to gain an advantage, to demand payments for it to stop, or to extract more money from advertising agencies' clients, which AdNauseum doesn't do. It'll be interesting to see how this gets treated by the press who have a vested interest in online advertising.
Even the most average 2 yr. old human is vastly more intelligent than the most cultured of monkeys.
Chimpanzees typically have superior spatial visualization ability to humans of any age. They'll outperform us in solving physical-spatial problems and puzzles any day of the week... well, as long as there's a food reward at the end of it.
The simplest feasible explanation is that the Bush regime made huge amounts of funding and credit available to defence software and IT subcontractors to develop this stuff. They're now taking govt./publicly funded R&D and selling some highly questionable tools to oppressive regimes around the world. So the govt./public funds the R&D and the subcontractors sell it at a profit. I think you can call that profiteering... or racketeering... or whatever you like. It's how they operate: Everything to do with war and resource extraction is a dirty business.
Nikola Tesla wouldn't get anywhere in Silicon Valley either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The Swiss have defended themselves by first, being in a place no one really wants, and second, by arming every citizen. That's why their neutrality has worked.
I think the Swiss stayed neutral by keeping everyone's money for them and allowing them to make secretive transactions for arms, oil, and to hide fortunes amassed by individuals in times of war (the spoils of war). Without banks like these, you can't wage wars effectively so the banking states/havens are always safe and secure.