"Coincidentally a boy in the same situation would probably come to the same conclusion. To a young child mathematics and arithmetic seem inextricably linked."
Actually it's fairly well known that a boy will tend to be overly confident in his abilities, but a girl will be under confident.
I've heard the role model argument lots of times, but I've never really bought into it.
When I was young (oh, say, 8 to 14 or so ) and really getting into computers, I really don't remember having a geeky role model.
Seriously, for a kid of 8 to 14, what geeky role models are there? I certainly didn't consciously have a role model other than perhaps my parents. Sure I was probably influenced by male writers and so on, but I'm not convinced that was a significant impact. After all, I picked up those books in the first place to read them.
You know we did this for ubuntu in the last release. We added a.hidden file which basically hid/usr etc from the user (those folder simply didn't show up in konqueror).
Nobody liked it and it was pointless. Anyone who browsed to / (since there's no direct links to it in kubuntu) probably knows enough not to get scared by usr,etc etc We removed it in the next release.
Unless you do what kde does - put the debug info in a separate file that can be loaded when needed (i.e. when it crashes). That way you can have a useful backtrace without using up memory when the program is running.
If it's designed for kids to be able to work out and use (not to mention being able to ship a manual or something), then you don't really need the teachers to teach how to use it.
I think you are presuming too much... The One Laptop Per Child project is very much for the children. They aren't supposed to be designed for adults to use - but the children. Hence the name.
Besides, I'm sure if an adult really wanted to use one, they could always get their kid to show them.
The first is that the statement " the speed of light is slower in other materials based on their refractive index" is actually misleading. It's more that the light _always_ travels at speed c, but keeps getting absorbed and then re-emitted by atoms. This absorbed-delay-re-emit makes the _average_ speed below c. But at any particular time, the light is travelling at speed c, or is instead converted to kinetic energy in an atom. Thus you don't get any time dilation problems with the light.
Incidently, it is possibly to have something travel faster than the 'apparent' speed of light. In this case you get a kinda sonic boom, but with light ( i.e. a photonic boom).
To us here on earth, it takes the light 4.2 years. But to light itself, it takes no time at all.
If we travelled close enough to the speed of light, to people on earth it would appear to take a time approaching 4.2 years. To the people in spaceship, it will take a time approaching zero time.
If we had a ship that went close to the speed of light, we could get to the stars pretty quickly - in days (for the passengers) if the ship was fast enough.
It's a common mistake to think you are prevented from killing people. In fact you are can kill people as much as you want, it's just that you face imprisonment/death if you do so.
We allow it because we don't see anything particular bad with it. I've never heard in the newspapers or second hand from anyone about anyone getting abuse or anyhing because of the cameras.
All I see is just American knee-jerking. I honestly don't see the problem. If you are going to misbehave in public, then you can't complain if it gets put on camera.
The only argument that I've seen is if in 50 years or so they all have AI then uh something bad. There's no immediate threat, or even close-future threat from the cameras. They offer some security, so why worry?
What class divisions are there here (uk) that you don't get in every other country? I'm honestly asking - it can be hard to view your own country from the inside.
What do you mean by that the middle class are insufferable? You don't like their mannerisms?
How exactly can Linux lose? It's getting better all the time. It can't go bankrupt, it can't be taken over, it can't be bought out.
You could argue it might gain more marketshare if we 'relax' our ideals and principles, but so what? We aren't going to lose linux or anything if we don't.
> Actually, it doesn't. It just means we don't have enough information to predict the outcome, not that the outcome is not deterministic. Just like radioactive decay
According to QM, even if we knew all the information we could possibly know about the Uranium atom, we still couldn't predict when it decays.
> Many teenagers feel embarrased when they in public. There is other evidence to point out to the fact that lack of privacy causes distress. Knowing that you will be constantly recorded increases this level of distress. Why should the people who comitted no crimes feel this level of discomfort in public places?
Have you got any sources for this? I've never heard of innocent people feeling distressed or a level of discomfort because of public CCTV cameras.
Slashdot Mirror
"Coincidentally a boy in the same situation would probably come to the same conclusion. To a young child mathematics and arithmetic seem inextricably linked."
Actually it's fairly well known that a boy will tend to be overly confident in his abilities, but a girl will be under confident.
I've heard the role model argument lots of times, but I've never really bought into it.
When I was young (oh, say, 8 to 14 or so ) and really getting into computers, I really don't remember having a geeky role model.
Seriously, for a kid of 8 to 14, what geeky role models are there? I certainly didn't consciously have a role model other than perhaps my parents. Sure I was probably influenced by male writers and so on, but I'm not convinced that was a significant impact. After all, I picked up those books in the first place to read them.
You know we did this for ubuntu in the last release. We added a .hidden file which basically hid /usr etc from the user (those folder simply didn't show up in konqueror).
Nobody liked it and it was pointless. Anyone who browsed to / (since there's no direct links to it in kubuntu) probably knows enough not to get scared by usr,etc etc
We removed it in the next release.
There's no technical reason why they couldn't have subtitles embedded in the file. ogg and mkv support this, and probably other containers.
Unless you do what kde does - put the debug info in a separate file that can be loaded when needed (i.e. when it crashes).
That way you can have a useful backtrace without using up memory when the program is running.
If it's designed for kids to be able to work out and use (not to mention being able to ship a manual or something), then you don't really need the teachers to teach how to use it.
If a person gets gets hyperactive and gets the shakes etc from Caffeine, then yeah they probably shouldn't take it.
I think you are presuming too much... The One Laptop Per Child project is very much for the children. They aren't supposed to be designed for adults to use - but the children. Hence the name.
Besides, I'm sure if an adult really wanted to use one, they could always get their kid to show them.
So? Why does it matter at all even if it's impossible for adults to learn?
Okay i agree with each individual statement, but I don't understand how you then came to conclusion that they should test with adults.
You do realise that these are _for_ the children, right?
There's several things going on here.
The first is that the statement " the speed of light is slower in other materials based on their refractive index" is actually misleading. It's more that the light _always_ travels at speed c, but keeps getting absorbed and then re-emitted by atoms. This absorbed-delay-re-emit makes the _average_ speed below c. But at any particular time, the light is travelling at speed c, or is instead converted to kinetic energy in an atom. Thus you don't get any time dilation problems with the light.
Incidently, it is possibly to have something travel faster than the 'apparent' speed of light. In this case you get a kinda sonic boom, but with light ( i.e. a photonic boom).
It's not an overstatement since I didn't specify what percentage of the speed of light:
0.9999c gives:
octave:3> 4*365*sqrt(1-0.9999^2)
ans = 20.647 [that's days]
octave:4> 4*365*sqrt(1-0.99999^2)
ans = 6.5293 [days again]
So 99.999% of the speed of light would get you there in 6.5 days. I'd call that "mere days".
To us here on earth, it takes the light 4.2 years. But to light itself, it takes no time at all.
If we travelled close enough to the speed of light, to people on earth it would appear to take a time approaching 4.2 years. To the people in spaceship, it will take a time approaching zero time.
If we had a ship that went close to the speed of light, we could get to the stars pretty quickly - in days (for the passengers) if the ship was fast enough.
I wasn't arguing against your point or anything, I just didn't like the semantic word game. That's all.
I think the grandparent meant to write "it's not right to cage just anybody" - i.e. cage random people for no reason.
What a stupid semantic game you play.
It's a common mistake to think you are prevented from killing people. In fact you are can kill people as much as you want, it's just that you face imprisonment/death if you do so.
We allow it because we don't see anything particular bad with it.
I've never heard in the newspapers or second hand from anyone about anyone getting abuse or anyhing because of the cameras.
All I see is just American knee-jerking. I honestly don't see the problem. If you are going to misbehave in public, then you can't complain if it gets put on camera.
The only argument that I've seen is if in 50 years or so they all have AI then uh something bad. There's no immediate threat, or even close-future threat from the cameras. They offer some security, so why worry?
And a camera has a position. You can demand the camera footage etc for that camera and get that person in trouble.
Hi!
What class divisions are there here (uk) that you don't get in every other country? I'm honestly asking - it can be hard to view your own country from the inside.
What do you mean by that the middle class are insufferable? You don't like their mannerisms?
How exactly can Linux lose? It's getting better all the time. It can't go bankrupt, it can't be taken over, it can't be bought out.
You could argue it might gain more marketshare if we 'relax' our ideals and principles, but so what? We aren't going to lose linux or anything if we don't.
Which is why I wrote "all the information we could _possibly_ know"
> Actually, it doesn't. It just means we don't have enough information to predict the outcome, not that the outcome is not deterministic. Just like radioactive decay
According to QM, even if we knew all the information we could possibly know about the Uranium atom, we still couldn't predict when it decays.
> Many teenagers feel embarrased when they in public. There is other evidence to point out to the fact that lack of privacy causes distress. Knowing that you will be constantly recorded increases this level of distress. Why should the people who comitted no crimes feel this level of discomfort in public places?
Have you got any sources for this? I've never heard of innocent people feeling distressed or a level of discomfort because of public CCTV cameras.
(I'm english btw)
> People would not lie to themselves.
But they do. Big time. That's the problem. Pick up any psychology text book and have a read - a lot of interesting stuff.