One important thing to remember with electromagnetic radiation is that two good examples are visible light and radiated heat. This stuff isn't exactly uncommon in nature...
The scariest thing about "electromagnetic radiation" is that the second word is the same one we use in english to describe "that stuff that kills people when you drop an atomic bomb". We use the same word in "pricing gun" and "machine gun" too.
I've never actually used a "real" thin-client setup. Perhaps you could clarify some things for me:
What does a thin-client box cost?
I assume that doesn't include Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse, right??
How much does a good server cost?
How many users can run The Gimp simultaniously on that server while still providing similar performance to, say, a 1ghz VIA C7? OpenOffice Presenter? Flash games?
The answer that I think is more direct is:
The people who are in the position to hire systems staff for schools don't understand the cost/benefit reality of good systems staff.
I really don't understand why schools are so gung-ho to spend tons of money on computer hardware and software, but are completely willing to hire sufficient systems adminstration staff.
Actually, they'd be best served by something sligthly different from Windows, especially if they're likely to use Windows in the future. Being exposed to slightly different interfaces to perform the same tasks results in an appreciation of the task itself rather than the specific implementation of a user interface for that task on a specfic version of a specific piece of software.
If a school district wants to spend money on computers they should hire competent UNIX admins for their market rate. Simply having them around the school will rub off some computer literacy on the students, even if they aren't "qualified" to actually teach.
That's a neat idea, but I can assure you if I were being paid to set up a school with computers and later support them, I'd charge more to let them use their old junkers than I would to get them brand new systems. Keeping things like monitors, keyboards and printers would be more negotiable.
- Thin clients are weird to administer, definately not the 'it just works' simplicity of Lindows
- I doubt Linspire is designed to work with a thin-client model anyway.
- A thin client is currently more expensive than a full PC, and uses about the same power as a low-power PC.
- The biggest benifit to the thin-client plan can be accomplished with NFS home directories.
It's also your job as a parent to distinguish between real and imaginary threats.
You shouldn't shelter your children from percieved threats to such an extent that they miss out on valuable life experence - and there's a good chance that any random experience might be valuable life experience, even playing a violent video game.
The best parents I know would sit down and play a game like GTA with their kids, being sure to mention when appropriate things like "If a real person got shot with a gun they'd be in the hosiptal - if they were really lucky" and "There's a big downside to paying women like that for sex: herpes".
I'd suggest that in the context you're talking about:
A.) A "young child" is, at absolute oldest, 6 years old. Anyone older than that has enough intuitive understanding between games and reality that, at worst, video games are a safe and fun way to help them build that understanding.
B.) Even then, the characters in a game like GTA are obviously not people. They don't walk like people, they don't act like people, and they live in a cathode ray tube. Even a very small child will understand that they're a very different thing from people.
There's no reason why parents shouldn't be able to decide to allow their children to play M Rated video games or watch R rated movies.
Additionally, I've seen many people who were raised that way - and if anything they turned out better than sheltered children - being exposed to more sooner seems to give kids an edge when it comes to real life.
I see playing a single player video game as being equivilent to reading a novel. You experience a story, get exposed to background culture, etc. This is an excellent use of leisure time.
I see playing compeditive networked computer games as being equivilent to a sport. You develop a skill and participate in structured interaction with other people.
Multiplayer console games are like a board game. You hang out with your friends and do something fun.
No idea what MMOs are good for, but then I've never gotten into them.
In any case, video games are just interactive media.
As far as the "hurting people understanding their computers thing", I don't think that's true so much. Many people I know with computers who aren't already experts wouldn't have computers at home at all if it weren't for games. The fact that that promotes running Windows is annoying, because it promotes Microsoft's skill lock-in, but it's better that people are exposed to computers at all rather than "just at work" or "just at school".
Once HDTVs are reasonably cheap and you can buy movies in HD format, I expect the switch to happen at least as quickly as the VHS to DVD switch occured. The reason we're not seeing any sign of interest yet is that HDTVs still cost $700 and the HD format media doesn't exist yet.
VIA's stuff is really nice. Now, I have no expectation that they won't implement DRM, but if they don't I see no reason why they wouldn't be an option for mid-range applications.
"Installing any program that exists and could possibly run on Linux, including both packaged programs and programs that only exist as development source snapshots" is a different standard than "Installing programs that have been packaged for Windows".
Would you consider it reasonable to rip on Windows for the install procedure for, say, Firefox from source? It'd be exactly as valid as ripping on Linux for the same thing.
The avaiability of source-only Linux programs is neat. It gives an additional option for Linux power users that users on non-Unix systems don't tend to have. It's not something that a normal user is expected to know about or deal with.
In the real world I live in, Linux software installs seem easier. Juggling CDs and typing in 20 character product keys just isn't a sound user experience compared to having your application downloaded and installed by a package manager.
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The scariest thing about "electromagnetic radiation" is that the second word is the same one we use in english to describe "that stuff that kills people when you drop an atomic bomb". We use the same word in "pricing gun" and "machine gun" too.
I've never actually used a "real" thin-client setup. Perhaps you could clarify some things for me:
What does a thin-client box cost?
I assume that doesn't include Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse, right??
How much does a good server cost?
How many users can run The Gimp simultaniously on that server while still providing similar performance to, say, a 1ghz VIA C7? OpenOffice Presenter? Flash games?
That's the simple answer.
The answer that I think is more direct is:
The people who are in the position to hire systems staff for schools don't understand the cost/benefit reality of good systems staff.
I really don't understand why schools are so gung-ho to spend tons of money on computer hardware and software, but are completely willing to hire sufficient systems adminstration staff.
OMG. ROFL.
There's no way in hell you could run an entire public school worth of computers without dedicated adminstration staff.
Actually, they'd be best served by something sligthly different from Windows, especially if they're likely to use Windows in the future. Being exposed to slightly different interfaces to perform the same tasks results in an appreciation of the task itself rather than the specific implementation of a user interface for that task on a specfic version of a specific piece of software.
If a school district wants to spend money on computers they should hire competent UNIX admins for their market rate. Simply having them around the school will rub off some computer literacy on the students, even if they aren't "qualified" to actually teach.
That's a neat idea, but I can assure you if I were being paid to set up a school with computers and later support them, I'd charge more to let them use their old junkers than I would to get them brand new systems. Keeping things like monitors, keyboards and printers would be more negotiable.
Teachers where you are only get paid 20k/year? WTF?
- Thin clients are weird to administer, definately not the 'it just works' simplicity of Lindows
- I doubt Linspire is designed to work with a thin-client model anyway.
- A thin client is currently more expensive than a full PC, and uses about the same power as a low-power PC.
- The biggest benifit to the thin-client plan can be accomplished with NFS home directories.
You shouldn't shelter your children from percieved threats to such an extent that they miss out on valuable life experence - and there's a good chance that any random experience might be valuable life experience, even playing a violent video game.
The best parents I know would sit down and play a game like GTA with their kids, being sure to mention when appropriate things like "If a real person got shot with a gun they'd be in the hosiptal - if they were really lucky" and "There's a big downside to paying women like that for sex: herpes".
So, if this is a real problem then this happens all the time, right?
Why not just use Unix?
I'd suggest that in the context you're talking about:
A.) A "young child" is, at absolute oldest, 6 years old. Anyone older than that has enough intuitive understanding between games and reality that, at worst, video games are a safe and fun way to help them build that understanding.
B.) Even then, the characters in a game like GTA are obviously not people. They don't walk like people, they don't act like people, and they live in a cathode ray tube. Even a very small child will understand that they're a very different thing from people.
Additionally, I've seen many people who were raised that way - and if anything they turned out better than sheltered children - being exposed to more sooner seems to give kids an edge when it comes to real life.
I disagree.
I see playing a single player video game as being equivilent to reading a novel. You experience a story, get exposed to background culture, etc. This is an excellent use of leisure time.
I see playing compeditive networked computer games as being equivilent to a sport. You develop a skill and participate in structured interaction with other people.
Multiplayer console games are like a board game. You hang out with your friends and do something fun.
No idea what MMOs are good for, but then I've never gotten into them.
In any case, video games are just interactive media.
As far as the "hurting people understanding their computers thing", I don't think that's true so much. Many people I know with computers who aren't already experts wouldn't have computers at home at all if it weren't for games. The fact that that promotes running Windows is annoying, because it promotes Microsoft's skill lock-in, but it's better that people are exposed to computers at all rather than "just at work" or "just at school".
How, exactly, would your son be hurt if he played a video game that you hadn't approved first? I mean... he might learn something.
Why? It's just a game.
I think it's more an issue of: Reguardless of your age, something is wrong when you can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
Once HDTVs are reasonably cheap and you can buy movies in HD format, I expect the switch to happen at least as quickly as the VHS to DVD switch occured. The reason we're not seeing any sign of interest yet is that HDTVs still cost $700 and the HD format media doesn't exist yet.
VIA's stuff is really nice. Now, I have no expectation that they won't implement DRM, but if they don't I see no reason why they wouldn't be an option for mid-range applications.
Another way to look at this one:
There's a big difference between killing the son of a bitch and getting the government to kill them for you.
Ever heard of trojan horses? Spam zombies are worth good money.
But woe to you when the open source component doesn't have an easy installer.
On Linux, the easy things are easy. The moderatly difficult things are reasonably simple. The hard things are hard, but possible.
On Windows, the easy things are easy. Some of the moderatly difficult things are also easy. If it's not easy, it's a horrible nightmare.
"Installing any program that exists and could possibly run on Linux, including both packaged programs and programs that only exist as development source snapshots" is a different standard than "Installing programs that have been packaged for Windows".
Would you consider it reasonable to rip on Windows for the install procedure for, say, Firefox from source? It'd be exactly as valid as ripping on Linux for the same thing.
The avaiability of source-only Linux programs is neat. It gives an additional option for Linux power users that users on non-Unix systems don't tend to have. It's not something that a normal user is expected to know about or deal with.
In the real world I live in, Linux software installs seem easier. Juggling CDs and typing in 20 character product keys just isn't a sound user experience compared to having your application downloaded and installed by a package manager.