from the astounding aspect of it all, that sounds like the best conclusion.. then again, it's stuff like this that could be true, and due to the incredulity of it all, we don't take it seriously, and they go change all the rules on us while we're not looking because now they have the power to
Resistance to change, that is. And it seems the gov't is resisting change in this case; change towards the better, as people begin to explore, and learn [by trial and error], to expand the flexibility of their mind. This program isn't going to work, any more than D.A.R.E. ever worked, or Smokey the Bear. I was never discouraged from drug use by D.A.R.E.; I'm not going to use them, though I'd certainly love to try them sometime. Smokey the Bear didn't discourage me from forest firing; I just don't like to kill trees, and I've just never had the urge to set a forest on fire (but my books.. heh.. that's another thought altogether;-) The thing is, they're wasting their money. As I feel, and as I've read many others feel, it's simply going to forceable expose them to what hacking is at that age, because of the program, and then they're going to wonder, if they haven't already, and explore, if they haven't already, and then look: we have more of these brilliantly educated, explorative children on "our hands." What, oh what, will our disorganized, crackheaded gov't do then?
Punish them, if at all possible. Or hire them to do their work that the gov't is too incompetent to handle themselves.
If you've ever read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, you'll remember how Ender knew exactly what his teachers were trying to do, and played along harder, stronger, cleverer than they expected... he knew _everything_, acted accordingly, and, in doing so, changed all the rules and WON. Perhaps, in some excellent twist of fate, the gov't can inspire such genius. Then again, maybe not.
Advertising indeed has great power. As you mentioned
wonder how many times the words "Pizza Hut" have come up in this discussion alone. Multiply by thousands of people talking about it around the water cooler, a story on every local news station's "...and now, something funny" segment, and kazillions of kilobytes of discussion elsewhere on the 'net.
, even the discussion of upcoming promos, etc, is advertising, so the effect is exponential. Even for people who, like me, think that a vast majority of adds are stupid, and a good number of them play down on the public, as if we were morons who are as gullible as a robot (which might not be _that_ gullible, I just couldn't think of the right noun). My point is, it's getting Pizza Hut noticed. Whether or not that's a good thing for us or them is another matter, but they're getting a hearty helping of publicity.
I can see this capability being put to great use, because of all the places where there can be noise, and having a computer with speech recognition abilities like this would be very helpful as they could automate more things by speaking to the computer.. each person having their voice recognized by the computer (and, just for insurance, having at least dual processors, if not a few more), and each person yapping their commands to the computer and getting instant results...
Imagine calling your computer up with a phone.. any phone, a pay phone, etc.. and getting it booted up and ready for you.. how convenient!
Retraining existing typists is a useful test in practical terms, but doesn't tell us anything about which is the best design in an abstract sense.
I agree, because in retraining someone to do something another way, you get one of 3 possibilities:
They preferred doing it the way they were originally taught.
They prefer doing it the new way they were taught.
They prefer neither method.
Such a situation incorporates the biases of the person, and ruins the empiricality of the experiment because the person as already been tainted by previous experience! As you suggested, they should take a group of people (children, most likely) who've never been presented with a keyboard before (never seen one, anything), and teach some how to type on a QWERTY keyboard, and some on a DVORAK keyboard, and see which group is faster, etc, etc.. And then they can begin to go back and do studies on
People who've been taught simultaneously on both keyboard layouts
People who've been taught first on one, (say, QWERTY) for a specific period of time, and who were then taught on DVORAK for a certain period of time, and then see which method produces faster typing output
The reverse of #2, i.e., teach them first on DVORAK for the same amount of time, and then switch to teaching them on QWERTY, etc, etc.
and then, just for the heck of it, make a keyboard that has the keys in all the same locations, but that reads alphabetically from left to right, top to bottom, and teach an arbitrary group using that as the original keyboard they're taught on, and run similar tests to those in 1-3 with this keyboard as the focal point.
I think that once experiments like these were conducted, the greater part of the [computing] world would be eager to know the results... and we all know why...
Is Linus working on writing the native language for the chip? (which, I just realized, is basically what yours is)
Or.... is Linus working on a _new_ OS that'll be the native OS for the Transmeta chip? Will Transmeta produce the chip themselves, and start their own line of desktops, servers, laptops, etc?
this may be off-topic, but my thoughts are, if DVD _is_ going to progress and be a technology that stays with us [permanently], I'm just going to wait, myself, until they improve the DVD players and push the technology to its farther limits so that I won't have to upgrade my equipment all the time, and I'll suffer less problems this way with DVDs. The other thing is, this plan works based on the theory of backwards compatibility (which I felt like mentioning, even though it wouldn't be an issue here), and on the idea that the technology will improve, become more wide-spread, and become less expensive which all adds up to equal more incentive to buy DVD. I know that a lot of computers now come with standard DVD drives, but, alas, I missed out on that one. Even so, that's just my $f(x)=1/x, where x=5.
I agree wholeheartedly with you, and I'm an American (and I'm going to assume that there are many more Americans who would agree). I think the Americanized standard of measurement is silly. I think a lot of it was based on arbitrary lengths that were somehow agreed upon later as a definite, exact measurement. The mile, I think, was based on some race that was held back in England from some point in England to, say, the Castle of somebody (I realize this is all a bunch of nonsense to you folks, but somewhere in the back of my brain, I remember hearing this in a class I had once). I recall that we used to equate an inch with the length of our thumb (and my thumb looks longer than an inch to me), a foot was,.. well you know where that one came from, so on and so forth.
As you can see, these are all very general assumptions for units of measurement, and I don't see how anything was built if people used such a system (at least, until they standardized it). Although, I will add that I'll sometimes sit and think to myself that we're pretty neat over here because we drives so-many-miles per hour, as opposed to kilometers (they're so short!), but that's my only positive thought about our system. I think we should ditch it for the metric system; I wish we had already. I mean, it's been in use for such a long time, and we might as well get used to using it all the time. What does the "American"/English system have to offer?
what I want to know is, would the increased screen size really be worth having to sit so darned far away from the thing? like sitting up close to a small screen, which, if you're dealing with 15", 17", and 19" monitors isn't that small, so it is with sitting far away from a large screen. Plus, I've noted that many people have expressed concerns with this (though i don't have any ideas of my own concerning such matters).
either way, if you're sitting farther away, you're that much farther away from the kcyboard/mouse (long cords, I realize), and the cpu (yes, you have to move disks around sometimes, you know)
In response to your mention of the SAT... well, phew! I've not made that high yet (and I'm not trying to say that, oh, i'm a genius, but i haven't made that high, so that means that they need to re-evaluate their assessment of a genius), but I also want to remind everyone that, as we all know, the SAT isn't the determining factor for genius-hood. And you're very much above-average, because I'm considered (where i come from, at least, which doens't mean to imply that this evaluation is correct) above-average.. it's all in how you handle yourself and interact and learn and think and KNOW.
And if you look at the Nobel prizes in Chemistry or Physics and note where the first reported mention of the work occured, I'd expect that you'd also find contrivesry as the idea was tossed around the scientific community.
Of course. There's bound to be controversy when a new theory/idea is introduced which, if true, would cause a drastic change in currently held theology in that field. I imagine that I wouldn't be ready to jump at this new information and hold it concretely until someone else had worked on it as well, and produced the same result. Of course, I do find it intriguing, but, since I'm not an expert in this field, and I certainly don't understand the processes of which they speak, I can't throw my opinion of that around. I just think it's interesting, but they should, if they rewrite the books, show this as a new theory, but that, as before, they aren't 100% sure that they're right.
This was a fairly small ISP, so it might be that only the larger ISPs make silly requirements like Qwest has.
yeah.. I have an account with a small ISP (very small, b/c the county I live in is microscopic itself), and we get unlimited access for $19.95/mo. I think though, that they sneaked in some kind of $1.00/mo charge for the email address (which I could care less about), but that's no biggie either. It is also, of course, dial-up access, and I had tried to use the account under Linux but couldn't because of my @#$%! WinModem in my laptop. (I'd try on one of the other machines at home, but their owners won't let me put Linux on them.. oh well.. *sigh*)
The thing is, though, I don't think these ISPs know what they're doing, trying to push people into a particular OS. What kind of morons are they that they feel that Windows is the only way their account can be set up? Who're they kidding? (Themselves, of course) The other thing is, I don't see why they would need to distribute software for the user to be able to set up/access their account.... having an internet connection requires no special software that doesn't already come with the OS or that couldn't be easily obtained. And if it does, then the ISP should carry that software in a variety of OSes for those various people out there. When we signed up for our account, they sent us four disks that had IE on them (four floppies that is.. self-explanatory) and then we got our username/password while talking on the phone to one of their reps. And they have support, so it's nice. Of course, I also realize that sometimes it's kinda buggy (stupid error msgs and the like), but it works. If I were those people who're writing about Qwest, I'd drop them like a hot potatoe and find someone else worth working with. That deal is _not_ too good to be true, for reasons which include the M$ deal.
However, most magic players are old enough to know that when they spend money on inherently worthless items, it is their own fault and not the fault of the gaming company.
Right! which is why I brought Magic into the discussion, because it shows that Pokemon isn't the only game to operate in this manner. It hasn't been, it isn't, and it won't be, which makes the whole situation even more ridiculous because that means that they have no basis for their suit. I think it should be thrown out of court. (not that I have a clue about Pokemon, other than it's about little animated looking animals, and I don't play it either, but that's another story altogether).
they operate on the same principle as wooden ducks, i.e., they attract the anti-missile to themselves as opposed to the actual missile, so that the anti-missile wastes itself on the decoy and the real deal keeps on chugging.... no?
Isn't this like Magik the Gathering? I realize that, having never actually played the game before, I could be very far off-my-rockers on this one, but, don't you "collect" the cards? and don't you buy more cards? and win cards? and play the game with them? then again, I don't really know, so someone fill me in on this, please.. thank you.
I'm not the expert on the whole incompetence scoop around here (since I'm not one of the 3 roots administering to the unix lab, I don't get in on a lot of the action.. *sniff*) but I know that near (or at, really) the core of the problem is the ITS (information technology services, or some crap like that) head doesn't know what they're doing, and can't understand the wonderful world of *nix.... and doesn't do a darned thing to help out the Unix lab. We are/were supposed to get new HP-UX machines for our unix lab, a better printer, etc., etc... but, _if_ we get anything, it appears we're going to be getting 486's. Goody for us. and a printer that's probably no better than the one we already have (it doesn't work). so, we're SOL. why? b/c we can't do a darned thing to get the ITS head fired, and it doesn't care a darned thing about Unix, or us. so we're screwed. (and that definitely means that they're not off doodling with the Linux kernel).
We were setting up an NT laptop to demo against a Samba box last week, and I got so frustrated just watching my boss (who actually works with NT) (my job title is Linux Specialist, I don't have to ever even boot Windows unless StarOffice can't handle the attachment) beat his head against that operating system, I finally told him straight out, "Don't ever make me program on NT. I'll quit."
Yes.. I know what you mean. (well, in another form, I do)
At the school I attend, I'd say 95% + of the machines here run WinNT. We have a Unix lab with ~10 old HP-UXs that work just fine.... the only time they've been down was when power was lost (except.. we had to take down the unix lab and relocate it for renovations of the room that housed it.. and two machines got set up, and they've spazzed on us twice, and twice only... stress, I'm sure... those poor things miss each other's company). We also had 2 486's running Linux. However.. the NT machines are the biggest crock of doo this side of forever. (Sadly, I'm on one of them right now). They're down more often than they're up; roaming profiles were enforced, which made login times soar to 9 + minutes; they love "System Process - Low on Virtual Memory" error messages; they like to lose user profiles so that we have to reboot them to login in the first place; the list goes on and on and on.
My beef is this: who in their right (or left, if you want to get picky) mind is going to set up an NT server for anything?!? Much less and use something that was open-sourced and is designed for the best OSes out there on some piece of crap as crappy as NT? Sheesh!
The FCC was designed to allocate the airwaves, nothing more, if they give that right to an international organization, then they are done. They do all that censorship crap too, however, they can only do that by leveraging the fact that they can take away your broadcast rights (MicrosoFCC, anyone?)
But I wonder, though I figure I also know the answer, does the FCC get bribed about allocating airwaves? Couldn't they? (of course they could) But I guess the thing to consider is that, if they relinquised their rights to allocate/control over the airwaves (or rather, over US airwaves) to another organization, that organization would be under pressure as well. Esp if control of airwaves was allocated to an nation-neutral (re: international) organization, that organization would be open to even more pressure, as corporations in each nation would want control over certain frequencies, as in a case like this one, which pits Apple against the military of France... in which case, of course, France's military wins. One would (at least, I would) assume that in all or nearly all cases of corporation vs. gov't, the gov't would win simply because they're the ones-in-charge.... But would that always be a good thing? Bribery/blackmail/beauracracy/corruption could just as easily infest such an international organization, and then where would we be? Broadcasting all over the place, disrupting walkie-talkies, military communication, pacemakers, etc etc....
Their proximity to the NSA probably has more to do with being able to take advantage of their years of experience.
you're right. I certainly wouldn't know. That makes sense to me. Then again, we won't know until they flat-out tell us. Otherwise, we'll continue to speculate as we already have. <end off-topic rant> Personally though, I'm glad that they have a Beowulf cluster.. that's great. and I hope it runs some form of OSS; Debian, FreeBSD, Linux, Unix, etc.. or, if they feel that a decision of that nature would be too intelligent for them to make, then as long as they don't use Windows, I'm happy. Of course, I also realize that their job is not to please me, but.... you know...
I personally would, if I had a kid who encountered such a situation, would ask the child what they thought and how they felt about staying/leaving school. I agree that, by keeping your child in school and fighting from the inside, you're not letting them win, then again, I understand, as you've pointed out: I would remove them from the danger (Yes, it's dangerous to have all free-will and common sense scared out of them)
I wouldn't want my child to be hurt either. Which is why I'd confront the child about what they felt like doing, because ultimately, by deciding for yourself and not letting the child decide, you're executing your own form of totalitarian control over the child... the child may wish to fight for his/herself in such a situation, and thereby gain strength and confidence in his/herself, as well as help to do the same for others, and gain back the lost rights.
Which amounts to this: I think this is horrid, and yes, schools are often run like prisons.. (I know, because I attend a residential high school; _not_ a boarding school, mind you), and I don't think this should be the case. Schools are supposed to be places of nurturing and openness and freedom and knowledge, not militaristic control and forced feeding of compact packets of "brain-stuffs."
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from the astounding aspect of it all, that sounds like the best conclusion..
then again, it's stuff like this that could be true, and due to the incredulity of it all, we don't take it seriously, and they go change all the rules on us while we're not looking because now they have the power to
Resistance to change, that is. And it seems the gov't is resisting change in this case; change towards the better, as people begin to explore, and learn [by trial and error], to expand the flexibility of their mind. This program isn't going to work, any more than D.A.R.E. ever worked, or Smokey the Bear. I was never discouraged from drug use by D.A.R.E.; I'm not going to use them, though I'd certainly love to try them sometime. Smokey the Bear didn't discourage me from forest firing; I just don't like to kill trees, and I've just never had the urge to set a forest on fire (but my books.. heh.. that's another thought altogether ;-)
- -
The thing is, they're wasting their money. As I feel, and as I've read many others feel, it's simply going to forceable expose them to what hacking is at that age, because of the program, and then they're going to wonder, if they haven't already, and explore, if they haven't already, and then look: we have more of these brilliantly educated, explorative children on "our hands." What, oh what, will our disorganized, crackheaded gov't do then?
Punish them, if at all possible. Or hire them to do their work that the gov't is too incompetent to handle themselves.
-----------------------------------------------
If you've ever read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, you'll remember how Ender knew exactly what his teachers were trying to do, and played along harder, stronger, cleverer than they expected... he knew _everything_, acted accordingly, and, in doing so, changed all the rules and WON.
Perhaps, in some excellent twist of fate, the gov't can inspire such genius.
Then again, maybe not.
--my $2/100 worth
Advertising indeed has great power. As you mentioned
wonder how many times the words "Pizza Hut" have come up in this discussion alone. Multiply by thousands of people talking about it around the water cooler, a story on every local news station's "...and now, something funny" segment, and kazillions of kilobytes of discussion elsewhere on the 'net.
, even the discussion of upcoming promos, etc, is advertising, so the effect is exponential. Even for people who, like me, think that a vast majority of adds are stupid, and a good number of them play down on the public, as if we were morons who are as gullible as a robot (which might not be _that_ gullible, I just couldn't think of the right noun). My point is, it's getting Pizza Hut noticed. Whether or not that's a good thing for us or them is another matter, but they're getting a hearty helping of publicity.
check your own grammar:
proffreading
I'm not trying to be picky/mean/pick a fight, but, since you mentioned it...
I can see this capability being put to great use, because of all the places where there can be noise, and having a computer with speech recognition abilities like this would be very helpful as they could automate more things by speaking to the computer.. each person having their voice recognized by the computer (and, just for insurance, having at least dual processors, if not a few more), and each person yapping their commands to the computer and getting instant results...
Imagine calling your computer up with a phone.. any phone, a pay phone, etc.. and getting it booted up and ready for you.. how convenient!
Entshuldigung Sie, bitte...
sorry about that. I was trying to put forth an effort, and worked it out in my head. Be sure I won't try _that_ again...
Where, pray tell, could you buy a DVORAK keyboard if you wanted one?
I agree, because in retraining someone to do something another way, you get one of 3 possibilities:
Such a situation incorporates the biases of the person, and ruins the empiricality of the experiment because the person as already been tainted by previous experience! As you suggested, they should take a group of people (children, most likely) who've never been presented with a keyboard before (never seen one, anything), and teach some how to type on a QWERTY keyboard, and some on a DVORAK keyboard, and see which group is faster, etc, etc.. And then they can begin to go back and do studies on
I think that once experiments like these were conducted, the greater part of the [computing] world would be eager to know the results... and we all know why...
My $0.02 worth
Is Linus working on writing the native language for the chip? (which, I just realized, is basically what yours is)
Or.... is Linus working on a _new_ OS that'll be the native OS for the Transmeta chip? Will Transmeta produce the chip themselves, and start their own line of desktops, servers, laptops, etc?
this may be off-topic, but my thoughts are, if DVD _is_ going to progress and be a technology that stays with us [permanently], I'm just going to wait, myself, until they improve the DVD players and push the technology to its farther limits so that I won't have to upgrade my equipment all the time, and I'll suffer less problems this way with DVDs. The other thing is, this plan works based on the theory of backwards compatibility (which I felt like mentioning, even though it wouldn't be an issue here), and on the idea that the technology will improve, become more wide-spread, and become less expensive which all adds up to equal more incentive to buy DVD. I know that a lot of computers now come with standard DVD drives, but, alas, I missed out on that one. Even so, that's just my $f(x)=1/x, where x=5.
I agree wholeheartedly with you, and I'm an American (and I'm going to assume that there are many more Americans who would agree). I think the Americanized standard of measurement is silly. I think a lot of it was based on arbitrary lengths that were somehow agreed upon later as a definite, exact measurement. The mile, I think, was based on some race that was held back in England from some point in England to, say, the Castle of somebody (I realize this is all a bunch of nonsense to you folks, but somewhere in the back of my brain, I remember hearing this in a class I had once). I recall that we used to equate an inch with the length of our thumb (and my thumb looks longer than an inch to me), a foot was,.. well you know where that one came from, so on and so forth.
As you can see, these are all very general assumptions for units of measurement, and I don't see how anything was built if people used such a system (at least, until they standardized it). Although, I will add that I'll sometimes sit and think to myself that we're pretty neat over here because we drives so-many-miles per hour, as opposed to kilometers (they're so short!), but that's my only positive thought about our system. I think we should ditch it for the metric system; I wish we had already. I mean, it's been in use for such a long time, and we might as well get used to using it all the time. What does the "American"/English system have to offer?
what I want to know is, would the increased screen size really be worth having to sit so darned far away from the thing? like sitting up close to a small screen, which, if you're dealing with 15", 17", and 19" monitors isn't that small, so it is with sitting far away from a large screen. Plus, I've noted that many people have expressed concerns with this (though i don't have any ideas of my own concerning such matters).
either way, if you're sitting farther away, you're that much farther away from the kcyboard/mouse (long cords, I realize), and the cpu (yes, you have to move disks around sometimes, you know)
just my $0.02 worth
In response to your mention of the SAT... well, phew! I've not made that high yet (and I'm not trying to say that, oh, i'm a genius, but i haven't made that high, so that means that they need to re-evaluate their assessment of a genius), but I also want to remind everyone that, as we all know, the SAT isn't the determining factor for genius-hood. And you're very much above-average, because I'm considered (where i come from, at least, which doens't mean to imply that this evaluation is correct) above-average.. it's all in how you handle yourself and interact and learn and think and KNOW.
Sigue siguiendo!
Now, *that's* the case I would buy!
Especially if it could cool the drink in a matter of seconds!
And if you look at the Nobel prizes in Chemistry or Physics and note where the first reported mention of the work occured, I'd expect that you'd also find contrivesry as the idea was tossed around the scientific community.
Of course. There's bound to be controversy when a new theory/idea is introduced which, if true, would cause a drastic change in currently held theology in that field.
I imagine that I wouldn't be ready to jump at this new information and hold it concretely until someone else had worked on it as well, and produced the same result. Of course, I do find it intriguing, but, since I'm not an expert in this field, and I certainly don't understand the processes of which they speak, I can't throw my opinion of that around.
I just think it's interesting, but they should, if they rewrite the books, show this as a new theory, but that, as before, they aren't 100% sure that they're right.
is an Emate?
This was a fairly small ISP, so it might be that only the larger ISPs make silly requirements like Qwest has.
yeah.. I have an account with a small ISP (very small, b/c the county I live in is microscopic itself), and we get unlimited access for $19.95/mo. I think though, that they sneaked in some kind of $1.00/mo charge for the email address (which I could care less about), but that's no biggie either. It is also, of course, dial-up access, and I had tried to use the account under Linux but couldn't because of my @#$%! WinModem in my laptop. (I'd try on one of the other machines at home, but their owners won't let me put Linux on them.. oh well.. *sigh*)
The thing is, though, I don't think these ISPs know what they're doing, trying to push people into a particular OS. What kind of morons are they that they feel that Windows is the only way their account can be set up? Who're they kidding? (Themselves, of course)
The other thing is, I don't see why they would need to distribute software for the user to be able to set up/access their account.... having an internet connection requires no special software that doesn't already come with the OS or that couldn't be easily obtained. And if it does, then the ISP should carry that software in a variety of OSes for those various people out there. When we signed up for our account, they sent us four disks that had IE on them (four floppies that is.. self-explanatory) and then we got our username/password while talking on the phone to one of their reps. And they have support, so it's nice. Of course, I also realize that sometimes it's kinda buggy (stupid error msgs and the like), but it works. If I were those people who're writing about Qwest, I'd drop them like a hot potatoe and find someone else worth working with. That deal is _not_ too good to be true, for reasons which include the M$ deal.
However, most magic players are old enough to know that when they spend money on inherently worthless items, it is their own fault and not the
fault of the gaming company.
Right! which is why I brought Magic into the discussion, because it shows that Pokemon isn't the only game to operate in this manner. It hasn't been, it isn't, and it won't be, which makes the whole situation even more ridiculous because that means that they have no basis for their suit. I think it should be thrown out of court. (not that I have a clue about Pokemon, other than it's about little animated looking animals, and I don't play it either, but that's another story altogether).
and, let me guess:
they operate on the same principle as wooden ducks, i.e., they attract the anti-missile to themselves as opposed to the actual missile, so that the anti-missile wastes itself on the decoy and the real deal keeps on chugging.... no?
Isn't this like Magik the Gathering? I realize that, having never actually played the game before, I could be very far off-my-rockers on this one, but, don't you "collect" the cards? and don't you buy more cards? and win cards? and play the game with them? then again, I don't really know, so someone fill me in on this, please.. thank you.
I'm not the expert on the whole incompetence scoop around here (since I'm not one of the 3 roots administering to the unix lab, I don't get in on a lot of the action.. *sniff*) but I know that near (or at, really) the core of the problem is the ITS (information technology services, or some crap like that) head doesn't know what they're doing, and can't understand the wonderful world of *nix.... and doesn't do a darned thing to help out the Unix lab. We are/were supposed to get new HP-UX machines for our unix lab, a better printer, etc., etc... but, _if_ we get anything, it appears we're going to be getting 486's. Goody for us. and a printer that's probably no better than the one we already have (it doesn't work). so, we're SOL. why? b/c we can't do a darned thing to get the ITS head fired, and it doesn't care a darned thing about Unix, or us. so we're screwed. (and that definitely means that they're not off doodling with the Linux kernel).
We were setting up an NT laptop to demo against a Samba box last week, and I got so frustrated just watching my boss (who actually works with NT) (my job title is Linux Specialist, I don't have to ever even boot Windows unless StarOffice can't handle the attachment) beat his head against that operating system, I finally told him straight out, "Don't ever make me program on NT. I'll quit."
... stress, I'm sure... those poor things miss each other's company). We also had 2 486's running Linux.
Yes.. I know what you mean. (well, in another form, I do)
At the school I attend, I'd say 95% + of the machines here run WinNT. We have a Unix lab with ~10 old HP-UXs that work just fine.... the only time they've been down was when power was lost (except.. we had to take down the unix lab and relocate it for renovations of the room that housed it.. and two machines got set up, and they've spazzed on us twice, and twice only
However.. the NT machines are the biggest crock of doo this side of forever. (Sadly, I'm on one of them right now). They're down more often than they're up; roaming profiles were enforced, which made login times soar to 9 + minutes; they love "System Process - Low on Virtual Memory" error messages; they like to lose user profiles so that we have to reboot them to login in the first place; the list goes on and on and on.
My beef is this: who in their right (or left, if you want to get picky) mind is going to set up an NT server for anything?!? Much less and use something that was open-sourced and is designed for the best OSes out there on some piece of crap as crappy as NT? Sheesh!
The FCC was designed to allocate the airwaves, nothing more, if they give that right to an international organization, then they are done. They do all that censorship crap too, however, they can only do that by leveraging the fact that they can take away your broadcast rights (MicrosoFCC, anyone?)
... But would that always be a good thing? Bribery/blackmail/beauracracy/corruption could just as easily infest such an international organization, and then where would we be? Broadcasting all over the place, disrupting walkie-talkies, military communication, pacemakers, etc etc....
But I wonder, though I figure I also know the answer, does the FCC get bribed about allocating airwaves? Couldn't they? (of course they could)
But I guess the thing to consider is that, if they relinquised their rights to allocate/control over the airwaves (or rather, over US airwaves) to another organization, that organization would be under pressure as well. Esp if control of airwaves was allocated to an nation-neutral (re: international) organization, that organization would be open to even more pressure, as corporations in each nation would want control over certain frequencies, as in a case like this one, which pits Apple against the military of France... in which case, of course, France's military wins. One would (at least, I would) assume that in all or nearly all cases of corporation vs. gov't, the gov't would win simply because they're the ones-in-charge.
Do we want this? What are your thoughts?
Their proximity to the NSA probably has more to do with being able to take advantage of their years of experience.
you're right. I certainly wouldn't know. That makes sense to me. Then again, we won't know until they flat-out tell us. Otherwise, we'll continue to speculate as we already have.
<end off-topic rant>
Personally though, I'm glad that they have a Beowulf cluster.. that's great. and I hope it runs some form of OSS; Debian, FreeBSD, Linux, Unix, etc.. or, if they feel that a decision of that nature would be too intelligent for them to make, then as long as they don't use Windows, I'm happy.
Of course, I also realize that their job is not to please me, but.... you know...
<my $0.02 worth>
I personally would, if I had a kid who encountered such a situation, would ask the child what they thought and how they felt about staying/leaving school. I agree that, by keeping your child in school and fighting from the inside, you're not letting them win, then again, I understand, as you've pointed out:
I would remove them from the danger (Yes, it's dangerous to have all free-will and common sense scared out of them)
I wouldn't want my child to be hurt either. Which is why I'd confront the child about what they felt like doing, because ultimately, by deciding for yourself and not letting the child decide, you're executing your own form of totalitarian control over the child... the child may wish to fight for his/herself in such a situation, and thereby gain strength and confidence in his/herself, as well as help to do the same for others, and gain back the lost rights.
Which amounts to this: I think this is horrid, and yes, schools are often run like prisons.. (I know, because I attend a residential high school; _not_ a boarding school, mind you), and I don't think this should be the case. Schools are supposed to be places of nurturing and openness and freedom and knowledge, not militaristic control and forced feeding of compact packets of "brain-stuffs."
My $0.02 worth