The EPA millage of an old car can't be compared directly with a new one as the EPA standards have changed.
As an example, I found that 1998 Honda Civic 1.6 L, 4 cyl, Automatic 4-spd Original combined EPA rating 32 mpg. From this web site: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/comparempg.shtml The new EPA rating is only 28mpg
> For every little file move or copying of files, I HAD to get root access and type in a command. There was no *GUI way* to do some things (as far as I know).
Assuming you are usging a Gnome based window manager this little trick will add a menu script to nautilus that will open a fully root enabled version of nautilus that will allow you to do system administration stuff.
create a file in ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts called root-nautilus-here and make it executible. The contents of the file should look like this:
My friend, for me me dynamic resizing, and live preview, even if they are included in a tabbed glossy tool bar don't reach my threshold level of "innovative". I've seen it before, but will concede that I haven't seen it in that exact combination. I suspect that we will just have to agree to disagree.
Innovators in the computer world are, for me, people like Alan Kay, Alan Turing, Doug Engelbart, Dan Ingalls, Adele Goldberg, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston and many more I will (although tempted) not list.
What I am grateful for, and feel protective of, is the ability for others to build on these peoples work. The ability for others make stuff without having to worry about getting stuck in a mico-innovation patent thicket over a shiny tool bar matters, even if what they are making is not innovative.
That was the point of my original post and why I also included this .
The linked story appears to be noting more than record company propaganda dressed up as news. Let's start with where they got the $60 million figure? Do they really expect us to believe that these kids out did Apple iTunes three and a half times? 17 million $0.99 cent iTunes so far. Not likely.
This story goes into a bit more detail and is worth a read.
I understand some files may have been simple rips but some of the allegedly infringing files that got these kids into trouble are club remixes they did themselves. That is, they created new works by sampling a song, pulling it apart and putting it back together with different beat, and uploading the remix. This is what DJ's do. It may technically be infringing behavior but it's not the kind of thing one would expect police action and possible jail for even if you did upload the final song.
The/. linked story has Paul Roberts, Counsel for the Commonwealth, saying "Ng was well aware he was acting illegally". In my link the story has Ng telling police he believed "Mp3WmaLand operated in a legal grey area". If that is really what happened then Mr. Roberts as the prosecutor should know and is now lying.
Now if you liked the bit about the open source software licensing in the first story, you are going to love this one. In the second story the industry's anti-piracy lawyer draws a comparison between Mp3WmaLand and Osama bin Laden's terrorist cells. Geez, Give me a break! What these kids did is absolutely noting to to with the "T" word. Here is some irony for you, isn't terrorism a small group trying to coerce a large population with fear, and the use or threatened use of force?
I don't mean to imply that you are one but, sadly too many people jumping on Linsys without really havening the story.
The short version is that Brodcom was subcontracted by Linksys to develop the imbeded software and Linksys wasn't fully aware of the obligations under the GPL.
I aggee it is a mess but Micorsoft may come out in a very strong position even if it looses.
One dark scenario would be for Microsoft to loose the case, thus strengthening the monopoly position that InterTrust's DRM has in law and then Microsoft buys out InterTrust. The combination of DRM and DMCA is scary enough without having a single entity having a legal monopoly on it.
It seems that there are two big hurdles that the little coders face these days and it seems that not having a freely available language isn't one of them. There are lots of free quality programming languages complete with extensive tutorials, such as Python (as pointed out by many)or the lesser known but very capable Squeak.
The first hurdle is the education systems vocation focused âoecomputer literacyâ. In the 80's schools really did focus on programming now its focused on learning to use stuff like office programs provided by Microsoft. This trains the student to be a âoeuserâ (as in drug user) rather than master of the computer.
The second hurdle which is hinted at but really spelled out in the article is the operating system and all the other computer components that because of their complexity must be treated as black boxes. Even in the most enlightened Linux using school it is very difficult for the little coders to actually have their programs interact with the hardware directly. While having an operating system is a good thing generally-- it does get in the way when one wants to understand computers at all the levels. Without interacting directly with hardware, students aren't going to have the perspective that brings.
Schools should look beyond programming on desktop computers and use simper devices like Lego Mindstorms or parallax basic stamps which for me solves âoethe Little Coder's Predicamentâ
Yes *sigh*, that's exactly what it is. I hope all his H4x0r buds laugh him out of town because to deface a wiki all the skill you need is to find the edit link at the top of the page. The change is easy to roll back of course and the offenders IP address is there for all to see.
Re:Licensing?
on
Opencroquet
·
· Score: 3, Informative
This is the current state of the license:
"... until a better license is written, Croquet is covered under the current Squeak license." - Team Croquet
The license allows for modification and redistribution, but has some quirky clauses in it because of it's lineage as proprietary software that owned by Apple.
It's worth noting, that the Smalltalk community since the beginning has always exposed all of it's source and allowed and encouraged users to modify the code and expand the code base. This goes back long before the open software/free software movements took root.
---
Squeak License Apple Computer, Inc. Software License PLEASE READ THIS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT "LICENSE" CAREFULLY BEFORE DOWNLOADING THIS SOFTWARE. BY DOWNLOADING THIS SOFTWARE YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, DO NOT DOWNLOAD.
1. License. The software, documentation and any fonts which you will receive by downloading this software (the "Apple Software") are licensed, not sold, to you by Apple Computer, Inc. or its local subsidiary, if any. Apple and/or Apple's licensor(s) retain title to the Apple Software, and the Apple Software and any copies which this License authorizes you to make are subject to this License. This License grants no right or license under any trademarks, service marks, or tradenames of Apple.
2. Permitted Uses and Restrictions. This License allows you to copy, install and use the Apple Software on an unlimited number of computers under your direct control. You may modify and create derivative works of the Apple Software ("Modified Software"), however, you may not modify or create derivative works of the fonts provided by Apple ("Fonts"). You may distribute and sublicense such Modified Software only under the terms of a valid, binding license that makes no representations or warranties on behalf of Apple, and is no less protective of Apple and Apple's rights than this License. You may distribute and sublicense the Fonts only as a part of and for use with Modified Software, and not as a part of or for use with Modified Software that is distributed or sublicensed for a fee or for other valuable consideration. If the Modified Software contains modifications, overwrites, replacements, deletions, additions, or ports to new platforms of: (1) the methods of existing class objects or their existing relationships, or (2) any part of the virtual machine, then for so long as the Modified Software is distributed or sublicensed to others, such modified, overwritten, replaced, deleted, added and ported portions of the Modified Software must be made publicly available, preferably by means of download from a website, at no charge under the terms set forth in Exhibit A below. You may transfer your rights under this License provided you transfer this License and a copy of the Apple Software to a party who agrees to accept the terms of this License and destroy any other copies of the Apple Software in your possession. Your rights under this License will terminate automatically without notice from Apple if you fail to comply with any term(s) of this License.
3. Disclaimer Of Warranty. The Apple Software is pre-release, and untested, or not fully tested. The Apple Software may contain errors that could cause failures or loss of data, and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. You expressly acknowledge and agree that use of the Apple Software is at your sole risk. You acknowledge that Apple has not publicly announced, nor promised or guaranteed to you, that Apple will release a final, commercial or any future pre-release version of the Apple Software to you or anyone in the future, and that Apple has no express or implied obligation to announce or introduce a final, commercial or any future pre-release version of the Apple Software or any similar or compatible product, or to continue to offer or support the Apple Software in the future. The Apple Software is provided "AS-IS" and without warranty of any kind and Apple and Apple's licensor(s) (for the purposes of Sections 3 and 4, Apple and Apple's licensor(s) shall be collectively referred to as "Apple") EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND/OR CONDITIONS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND/OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY OR SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. APPLE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE APPLE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE APPLE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED. FURTHERMORE, APPLE DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE OR RELATED DOCUMENTATION IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY APPLE OR AN APPLE AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY. SHOULD THE APPLE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU (AND NOT APPLE OR AN APPLE AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE) ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THE TERMS OF THIS DISCLAIMER DO NOT AFFECT OR PREJUDICE THE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A CONSUMER ACQUIRING APPLE PRODUCTS OTHERWISE THAN IN THE COURSE OF A BUSINESS, NEITHER DO THEY LIMIT OR EXCLUDE ANY LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY APPLE'S NEGLIGENCE.
4. Limitation of Liability. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL APPLE BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS LICENSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THIS LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. In no event shall Apple's total liability to you for all damages exceed the amount of fifty dollars ($50.00).
5. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold Apple harmless from any and all damages, liabilities, costs and expenses (including but not limited to attorneys' fees and costs of suit) incurred by Apple as a result of any claim, proceeding, and/or judgment to the extent it arises out of or is connected in any manner with the operation, use, distribution or modification of Modified Software, or the combination of Apple Software or Modified Software with other programs; provided that Apple notifies Licensee of any such claim or proceeding in writing, tenders to Licensee the opportunity to defend or settle such claim or proceeding at Licensee's expense, and cooperates with Licensee in defending or settling such claim or proceeding.
6. Export Law Assurances. You may not use or otherwise export or reexport the Apple Software except as authorized by United States law and the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Apple Software was obtained. In particular, but without limitation, the Apple Software may not be exported or reexported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) any U.S. embargoed country or (ii) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Department of Commerce's Table of Denial Orders. By using the Apple Software, you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list.
7. Government End Users. If the Apple Software is supplied to the United States Government, the Apple Software is classified as "restricted computer software" as defined in clause 52.227-19 of the FAR. The United States Government's rights to the Apple Software are as provided in clause 52.227-19 of the FAR.
8. Controlling Law and Severability. If there is a local subsidiary of Apple in the country in which the Apple Software License was obtained, then the local law in which the subsidiary sits shall govern this License. Otherwise, this License shall be governed by the laws of the United States and the State of California. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision, or portion thereof, to be unenforceable, the remainder of this License shall continue in full force and effect.
9. Complete Agreement. This License constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the use of the Apple Software and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous understandings regarding such subject matter. No amendment to or modification of this License will be binding unless in writing and signed by Apple.
Where the Licensee is located in the province of Quebec, Canada, the following clause applies: The parties hereto confirm that they have requested that this Agreement and all related documents be drafted in English. Les parties ont exigé que le présent contrat et tous les documents connexes soient rédigés en anglais.
EXHIBIT A License. You may copy, install, use, modify and create derivative works of the [Modified Software] "Changed Software" (but you may not modify or create derivative works of the [Fonts]) and distribute and sublicense such Changed Software, provided however, that if the Changed Software contains modifications, overwrites, replacements, deletions, additions, or ports to new platforms of: (1) the methods of existing classes objects or their existing relationships, or (2) any part of the virtual machine, then for so long as the Changed Software is distributed or sublicensed to others, such modified, overwritten, replaced, deleted, added and ported portions of the Changed Software must be made publicly available, preferably by means of download from a website, at no charge under the terms of a license that makes no representations or warranties on behalf of any third party, is no less protective of [the licensors of the Modified Software] and its licensors, and contains the terms set forth in Exhibit A below [which should contain the terms of this Exhibit A]. You may distribute and sublicense the [Fonts] only as a part of and for use with Changed Software, and not as a part of or for use with Changed Software that is distributed or sublicensed for a fee or for other valuable consideration.
... and penguin rookery . Tux would love it!
on
Perpetual Skislope
·
· Score: 1
This is great, when geeks go skiing they can bring their favorite avian friends. There is a special place for them underneath. Have a look under the disk at the hotel and rookery. I guess that would be the rookery on the right (or would that be it in the center of the picture.)
Breathless gloomy statements like "bad news: this is the best it is going to get" may get this piece linked to from slash-dot but it sure gets in the way of a good article. The speciesist statement "Our species has reached its biological pinnacle" should raise a red flag for/. readers. It looks like the author as fallen victim to the common fallacy that evolution is a ladder of perfection. It's too bad really. This topic could have been an interesting in more skillful hands.
As best as I can figure, the argument the author is putting forward is this: Because of week selection pressure on the human species therefore evolution has stopped. If this is what the author is trying to say, then (s)he is wrong. Evolution comes in two parts, one is random mutation and non-random selection. When selection pressure is week then a species as a whole experiences "good times". mortality rates are low, life is easier and a large growing population soon results. When you have a large population you have lots of random mutations happening there are more possibilities going into the gene pool. Just because selection pressure weaker doesn't mean that the whole process has stopped. The very nature of exponential growth usualy meens that week selection pressure can only exist temporarily . It could be back with a vengence later.
Evolution would be finaly over as the title of the article suggests when we somehow could magic away selection pressures foever. This applies to sex selction pressures as well, make sure that everyone had exactly the same number of offspring by a mate chosen compleatly at random.
Quite right you can, but as you say there are disadvantages. It's kudgy compared to how other construction toys do it.
I'm not dumping on Meccano, its a fine system, and I am dumping on Lego, simply because it has managed to bully just about every other construction toy off store shelves. Having only one construction toy is like having only one mode of thought. Different systems require that the child use different mental skills. As they offer some of the best play and educational value of any class of toy, there should be plenty of room in the toy box for many different types of sets.
I recommend at least building set where the angles are an emergent property rather than an assumption that is built in. The Roger's Connection set with its ball bering hubs would be a good example. One of the first things you notice when you build stuff is that most of the angles between the rods tends to be 60 degrees and not 90!
I'm going to turn it around and say: This new type of pencil can draw--
straight lines
circles
regular polygons
and many More!
to which you then add a sardonic: *yawn*
Please don't miss this one point. You can't produce the angles required to make regular polyhedra with Meccano or Lego. At least not easily. This is a huge limitation and is like having a pencil that can draw a square but not a equilateral triangle. Ask yourself why is it that most people can recognize the basic shapes of 2-d space just as equilateral triangles and squares but not name the basic 3-d shapes such as the tetrahedron or rhombic dodecahedron. Now look at the construction toys we played with as a kid.
I'm not out to spoil a child's fun by making it, "eew-- educational". But rather just the opposite, the Lego and to a lesser extent Meccano tend fix all the angles to 90 degrees and there is a infinite universe of possibilities that are outside the reach of these systems. The Cartesian coordinate system for the "squares" in the education system.
I'll let you in on a little secret. I play with construction toys that I listed above and I find the deep symmetries that I can make with them very pleasing. I wish I had them when I was a (young) kid too.
One problem that is common with both Lego and Meccano is that it forces the child into building things that are almost all orthogonal. Time has marched on and a great many smart kids have since gotten bigger (grown up isn't the right word) and have invented better toys since then.
Here are a few alternatives:
Zometools are like a bit like tinker-toys but allow a greater number angles at the hubs and are much better thought out. They also have a large collection of online lesson plans for educators that are free for the downloading.
Roger's connections and Mega Magz take the concept further by using ball barings as hubs and magnetic rods allowing for an even more flexible joint and rod system.
Check out Chuck Hoberman's Expandagon construction toy where the parts expand and contract causing the construction to transform from one shape, to
another.
The bubble gum quote comes from the John Carpenter's _They live_
The first level of the game is very closely based on the John Carpenter, _Escape from New York._ I think this is where the "Hail to the king baby" comes from.
Remember the the tip of the hat to ID software? "That's one doomed space marine" and "I ain't afraid of no Quake"
How about all the OJ "Guilty / Innocent" billboards? Well I guess that one wasn't so obscure.
I just spent a few minutes playing with a demo program that lets you try this layout on a
regular qwerty keyboard (link) The mirror reflection really does make learning much easier. I was quite surprised and its worth giving it a try. $395.00 USD? pffft! He want's an arm and a leg for a keyboard driver.
http://half-qwerty.com/
The web site is amateurish and the program could be duplicated in a few minutes for linux by many of the/. crowd to the benefit of all, particularly those with disabilities. Its too bad we are screwed by his monopoly license.
=============
U.S. Patent No. 5,288,158. European Patent
No. 0,489,792. Australian Patent No. 647,750.
James Earl Jones would be great. He could easy fill those shoes without the overdramatization.
Besides think about him saying: http://www.best.com/~kennahm/life.wav
wave file
The truth is that security cameras and other surveillance technology is ubiquitous and the technology behind them is only going to improve and get as cheap as dirt. The question is, as a society are we going to do about it? Judging from how the discussion has gone so far, i can only shake my head. Lets move the discussion passed, the police surveillance is "good vs evil" stage.
For those who believe that having the police check every ones face as they enter the gate at the Super Bowl is a good thing, are you naive? How do you know that your not? I'm sure they kept the camera's secret because It would creep people out to know that they were being scanned against known criminals, yet they did it anyway. How do you know that they are just looking out for your interests, what did they do they deserve this level of trust from you? This is a very powerful tool in the hands of the police that can be used for both good or ill. What's to prevent them from betraying this trust in the future?
For those who are apposed to this kind of Technology, lets get past the 1984 analogies. Let me remind you that, You don't need technology to create a very chilling authoritarian state, and technology only played a minor role in the book. For better or worse the technology exists and fortunately the picture of the future for most of us is not a "boot stomping on a human face". In fact surveillance can act in reverse, making the police much less likely to beat someone if they believe that they themselves are being
watched. Watching the watchers watch may one key to preventing the abuse of this technology.
Someone who has put a great deal of thought on the matter is David Brin, and I'm quite surprised that is lucid thoughts on this matter has not yet come up in this thread. This short piece in Wired and this Discussion are a good place places start. From what I can tell, many of you have not been exposed to these ideas yet. I put these in the "must read" category.
.NET SOUNDS LIKE WHAT? (Shouting over the band music)
I thought you said it sounds like Java, but that cant be right. Sorry, I can't hear you! Microsoft's
marketing department is making too much noise. Today I want to go somewhere where I can hear myself think.
Slashdot Mirror
The EPA millage of an old car can't be compared directly with a new one as the EPA standards have changed.
As an example, I found that 1998 Honda Civic 1.6 L, 4 cyl, Automatic 4-spd Original combined EPA rating 32 mpg.
From this web site: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/comparempg.shtml
The new EPA rating is only 28mpg
New 2018 Civics get better than this.
> For every little file move or copying of files, I HAD to get root access and type in a command. There was no *GUI way* to do some things (as far as I know).
Assuming you are usging a Gnome based window manager this little trick will add a menu script to nautilus that will open a fully root enabled version of nautilus that will allow you to do system administration stuff.
create a file in ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts called root-nautilus-here and make it executible. The contents of the file should look like this:
#!/bin/sh
### root-nautilus-here
gksudo "nautilus --no-desktop $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI"
now simply right click on a directory and select "script>root-nautilus-here"
My friend, for me me dynamic resizing, and live preview, even if they are included in a tabbed glossy tool bar don't reach my threshold level of "innovative". I've seen it before, but will concede that I haven't seen it in that exact combination. I suspect that we will just have to agree to disagree.
Innovators in the computer world are, for me, people like Alan Kay, Alan Turing, Doug Engelbart, Dan Ingalls, Adele Goldberg, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston and many more I will (although tempted) not list.
What I am grateful for, and feel protective of, is the ability for others to build on these peoples work. The ability for others make stuff without having to worry about getting stuck in a mico-innovation patent thicket over a shiny tool bar matters, even if what they are making is not innovative.
That was the point of my original post and why I also included this .
Ribbon
It's interesting that you bring up the "Ribbon" as there is prior art for it, yet Microsoft is trying for a patentland grab on a relativity common User Interface concept.
quite right, how can he have any self respect. He should have used duct tape.
The linked story appears to be noting more than record company propaganda dressed up as news. Let's start with where they got the $60 million figure? Do they really expect us to believe that these kids out did Apple iTunes three and a half times? 17 million $0.99 cent iTunes so far. Not likely.
/. linked story has Paul Roberts, Counsel for the Commonwealth, saying "Ng was well aware he was acting illegally". In my link the story has Ng telling police he believed "Mp3WmaLand operated in a legal grey area". If that is really what happened then Mr. Roberts as the prosecutor should know and is now lying.
This story goes into a bit more detail and is worth a read.
I understand some files may have been simple rips but some of the allegedly infringing files that got these kids into trouble are club remixes they did themselves. That is, they created new works by sampling a song, pulling it apart and putting it back together with different beat, and uploading the remix. This is what DJ's do. It may technically be infringing behavior but it's not the kind of thing one would expect police action and possible jail for even if you did upload the final song.
The
Now if you liked the bit about the open source software licensing in the first story, you are going to love this one. In the second story the industry's anti-piracy lawyer draws a comparison between Mp3WmaLand and Osama bin Laden's terrorist cells. Geez, Give me a break! What these kids did is absolutely noting to to with the "T" word. Here is some irony for you, isn't terrorism a small group trying to coerce a large population with fear, and the use or threatened use of force?
I don't mean to imply that you are one but, sadly too many people jumping on Linsys without really havening the story.
The short version is that Brodcom was subcontracted by Linksys to develop the imbeded software and Linksys wasn't fully aware of the obligations under the GPL.
Linksys GPL code (or most of it) can now be found here.
I aggee it is a mess but Micorsoft may come out in a very strong position even if it looses.
One dark scenario would be for Microsoft to loose the case, thus strengthening the monopoly position that InterTrust's DRM has in law and then Microsoft buys out InterTrust. The combination of DRM and DMCA is scary enough without having a single entity having a legal monopoly on it.
It seems that there are two big hurdles that the little coders face these days and it seems that not having a freely available language isn't one of them. There are lots of free quality programming languages complete with extensive tutorials, such as Python (as pointed out by many)or the lesser known but very capable Squeak.
The first hurdle is the education systems vocation focused âoecomputer literacyâ. In the 80's schools really did focus on programming now its focused on learning to use stuff like office programs provided by Microsoft. This trains the student to be a âoeuserâ (as in drug user) rather than master of the computer.
The second hurdle which is hinted at but really spelled out in the article is the operating system and all the other computer components that because of their complexity must be treated as black boxes. Even in the most enlightened Linux using school it is very difficult for the little coders to actually have their programs interact with the hardware directly. While having an operating system is a good thing generally-- it does get in the way when one wants to understand computers at all the levels. Without interacting directly with hardware, students aren't going to have the perspective that brings.
Schools should look beyond programming on desktop computers and use simper devices like Lego Mindstorms or parallax basic stamps which for me solves âoethe Little Coder's Predicamentâ
Yes *sigh*, that's exactly what it is. I hope all his H4x0r buds laugh him out of town because to deface a wiki all the skill you need is to find the edit link at the top of the page. The change is easy to roll back of course and the offenders IP address is there for all to see.
"... until a better license is written, Croquet is
covered under the current Squeak license."
- Team Croquet
The license allows for modification and redistribution, but has some quirky clauses in it because of it's lineage as proprietary software that owned by Apple.
It's worth noting, that the Smalltalk community since the beginning has always exposed all of it's source and allowed and encouraged users to modify the code and expand the code base. This goes back long before the open software/free software movements took root.
---
This is great, when geeks go skiing they can bring their favorite avian friends. There is a special place for them underneath. Have a look under the disk at the hotel and rookery. I guess that would be the rookery on the right (or would that be it in the center of the picture.)
Breathless gloomy statements like "bad news: this is the best it is going to get" may get this piece linked to from slash-dot but it sure gets in the way of a good article. The speciesist statement "Our species has reached its biological pinnacle" should raise a red flag for /. readers. It looks like the author as fallen victim to the common fallacy that evolution is a ladder of perfection. It's too bad really. This topic could have been an interesting in more skillful hands.
As best as I can figure, the argument the author is putting forward is this: Because of week selection pressure on the human species therefore evolution has stopped. If this is what the author is trying to say, then (s)he is wrong. Evolution comes in two parts, one is random mutation and non-random selection. When selection pressure is week then a species as a whole experiences "good times". mortality rates are low, life is easier and a large growing population soon results. When you have a large population you have lots of random mutations happening there are more possibilities going into the gene pool. Just because selection pressure weaker doesn't mean that the whole process has stopped. The very nature of exponential growth usualy meens that week selection pressure can only exist temporarily . It could be back with a vengence later.
Evolution would be finaly over as the title of the article suggests when we somehow could magic away selection pressures foever. This applies to sex selction pressures as well, make sure that everyone had exactly the same number of offspring by a mate chosen compleatly at random.
Quite right you can, but as you say there are disadvantages. It's kudgy compared to how other construction toys do it.
I'm not dumping on Meccano, its a fine system, and I am dumping on Lego, simply because it has managed to bully just about every other construction toy off store shelves. Having only one construction toy is like having only one mode of thought. Different systems require that the child use different mental skills. As they offer some of the best play and educational value of any class of toy, there should be plenty of room in the toy box for many different types of sets.
I recommend at least building set where the angles are an emergent property rather than an assumption that is built in. The Roger's Connection set with its ball bering hubs would be a good example. One of the first things you notice when you build stuff is that most of the angles between the rods tends to be 60 degrees and not 90!
I'm going to turn it around and say: This new type of pencil can draw--
straight lines
circles
regular polygons
and many More!
to which you then add a sardonic: *yawn*
Please don't miss this one point. You can't produce the angles required to make regular polyhedra with Meccano or Lego. At least not easily. This is a huge limitation and is like having a pencil that can draw a square but not a equilateral triangle. Ask yourself why is it that most people can recognize the basic shapes of 2-d space just as equilateral triangles and squares but not name the basic 3-d shapes such as the tetrahedron or rhombic dodecahedron. Now look at the construction toys we played with as a kid.
I'm not out to spoil a child's fun by making it, "eew-- educational". But rather just the opposite, the Lego and to a lesser extent Meccano tend fix all the angles to 90 degrees and there is a infinite universe of possibilities that are outside the reach of these systems. The Cartesian coordinate system for the "squares" in the education system.
I'll let you in on a little secret. I play with construction toys that I listed above and I find the deep symmetries that I can make with them very pleasing. I wish I had them when I was a (young) kid too.
Here are a few alternatives:
Zometools are like a bit like tinker-toys but allow a greater number angles at the hubs and are much better thought out. They also have a large collection of online lesson plans for educators that are free for the downloading.
Roger's connections and Mega Magz take the concept further by using ball barings as hubs and magnetic rods allowing for an even more flexible joint and rod system.
How about having children explore this kind of this cool construction technique, like the artist Ken Snelson.
Check out Chuck Hoberman's Expandagon construction toy where the parts expand and contract causing the construction to transform from one shape, to
another.
Duke was full of obscure references.
The bubble gum quote comes from the John Carpenter's _They live_
The first level of the game is very closely based on the John Carpenter, _Escape from New York._ I think this is where the "Hail to the king baby" comes from.
Remember the the tip of the hat to ID software? "That's one doomed space marine" and "I ain't afraid of no Quake"
How about all the OJ "Guilty / Innocent" billboards? Well I guess that one wasn't so obscure.
all your base are belong to us nod:
Now *I* own your bases, and I'm your grammar nazi.
duke on genomics:
Who wizzed in your gene pool?
I just spent a few minutes playing with a demo program that lets you try this layout on a
/. crowd to the benefit of all, particularly those with disabilities. Its too bad we are screwed by his monopoly license.
regular qwerty keyboard (link) The mirror reflection really does make learning much easier. I was quite surprised and its worth giving it a try. $395.00 USD? pffft! He want's an arm and a leg for a keyboard driver.
http://half-qwerty.com/
The web site is amateurish and the program could be duplicated in a few minutes for linux by many of the
=============
U.S. Patent No.
5,288,158. European Patent
No. 0,489,792. Australian Patent No. 647,750.
James Earl Jones would be great. He could easy fill those shoes without the overdramatization.
Besides think about him saying: http://www.best.com/~kennahm/life.wav
wave file
Rocket Guy has a Web page. This has got to be one of the strangest looking rockets ever.
These things are never as simple as they first appear.
Aussie youth bailed on Toronto partners.
It looks like Hotline didn't have much choice but to sue for the IP. At any rate it is a particularly strange story.
The truth is that security cameras and other surveillance technology is ubiquitous and the technology behind them is only going to improve and get as cheap as dirt. The question is, as a society are we going to do about it? Judging from how the discussion has gone so far, i can only shake my head. Lets move the discussion passed, the police surveillance is "good vs evil" stage.
For those who believe that having the police check every ones face as they enter the gate at the Super Bowl is a good thing, are you naive? How do you know that your not? I'm sure they kept the camera's secret because It would creep people out to know that they were being scanned against known criminals, yet they did it anyway. How do you know that they are just looking out for your interests, what did they do they deserve this level of trust from you? This is a very powerful tool in the hands of the police that can be used for both good or ill. What's to prevent them from betraying this trust in the future?
For those who are apposed to this kind of Technology, lets get past the 1984 analogies. Let me remind you that, You don't need technology to create a very chilling authoritarian state, and technology only played a minor role in the book. For better or worse the technology exists and fortunately the picture of the future for most of us is not a "boot stomping on a human face". In fact surveillance can act in reverse, making the police much less likely to beat someone if they believe that they themselves are being
watched. Watching the watchers watch may one key to preventing the abuse of this technology.
Someone who has put a great deal of thought on the matter is David Brin, and I'm quite surprised that is lucid thoughts on this matter has not yet come up in this thread. This short piece in Wired and this Discussion are a good place places start. From what I can tell, many of you have not been exposed to these ideas yet. I put these in the "must read" category.
Enjoy.
.NET SOUNDS LIKE WHAT? (Shouting over the band music)
I thought you said it sounds like Java, but that cant be right. Sorry, I can't hear you! Microsoft's
marketing department is making too much noise. Today I want to go somewhere where I can hear myself think.
If I'm supposed to "beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers", what do I do if I see one with a cutting torch? I think I would run for the hills!