Actually, in the school district I mentioned, they DO NOT, repeat DO NOT have to take Algebra I and II. They get some lame watered down version which is called Pre-Algebra. Geometry and Trig are NOT, repeat NOT required classes.
I didn't typo, I'm not wrong and I didn't stutter. If you like, I'll give you the phone # to the school district headquarters.
What do we need to do in order to produce more IT professionals? Take a look at the list below for a few idea.
Here's my solution:
1) Poll all current welfare and permanent disability recipients. See how many are interested and capable of learning to perform IT work. 2) Instead of continuing to pump money into a system that only perpetuates poverty, educate the people who are both interested and capable. Get them a CNA or MCSE and help them get their first job. After the first paycheck, government assistance ends since at that point you should be a) getting paid and b) have health coverage. 3) Increase funding for science and math teachers from elementary school to high school. We can use the money that we're saving from the public assistance programs to fund this. 4) Increase funding for music and art. While most people don't realize this, there is a strong connection between math and music as well as science and art in the human brain. Researchers are still trying to work out exactly what it is, but studies show that there is definitely a link for most people. 5) Raise instead of lower the requirements in order to graduate high school. One of my friends has a daughter who just started high school this year. The only math requirements for her to graduate are two semesters of math. What this means is that they're only required to take and pass Pre-Algebra I & II. Since most everyone on here are IT pros of some kind, I'm sure you're aware that this doesn't cut it for college. Algebra I & II, Geometry, and Trig should be the minimum requirements, IMHO. 6) As a corollary to #5, we need to raise the requirements for science as well. Her school district only requires two semesters of science. What this really means is that you take a semester of earth science and you take health class. IMHO, you should take Biology I & II, Chemestry I & II, Anatomy & Physiology, and Physics. 7) They do require 8 semesters of English, however, I can tell you that what passes for papers in many of these classes is laughable. I have a friend who teaches freshman & sophomore composition at a local university. The level of literacy among these kids is...horrific. I've helped her grade papers and seen things like an entire 3 page paper that was a single run on sentence. These kids do not know the difference between things like "to", "too", and "two". I cannot count the number of times I've seen someone write something like "I'm going two the store." "There", "their", and "they're" is another one that they don't seem to be aware of. Then there are the kids that write papers like they send IM and text messages, "UR 4 real?" 8) Ditch "no child left behind" philosophy. This blatantly ignores the fact that some of the kids *need* to be left behind. If they cannot keep pace in a regular classroom, they need to be sent to remedial classes until they are on a par with their peers. Keeping them in the regular classrooms has a negative effect on the kids who do their work and keep up. All this has done is resulted in a dumbing down of the entire curriculum. Here in Dallas, the school district recently published an article proclaiming their pride in the fact that only 25% of the graduates last year were functionally illiterate. They're proud of this figure because it's down from 33% last year. That means 1 in 4 high school graduates cannot read and write well enough to fill out a job application at Wal-mart. They cannot add and subtract well enough to make change for a dollar. That is absolutely shameful and how anyone in their right mind can take pride in that is beyond me.
I've seen a lot of projects that you couldn't get working on *any* platform. I'll go back to my Tivo example. The Tivo OSS project didn't include a lot of proprietary code which was required in order to get the device to function "as advertised". Now, I'm not knocking Tivo for wanting to keep their proprietary code a secret. I'm knocking them for wanting to keep it a secret and still call themselves "open source".
Open Source software tends to work on a very darwinian model. Yes, there are "category killers" (who wants to code up a new text editor?) but for the most part, when a new "category" of open source application start taking off, it generates a lot of interest. You see about a zillion projects form up on Source Forge. Those that are able to actually produce usually get weeded through based on the quality and features. With price being removed as a deciding factor, it becomes all about how good the product is. Those that are good, survive. Those that aren't, don't. Occasionally, the old stand-bys get replaced.
What I see a lot of is companies, like Second Life (gaming company) who will "open source" part of their product, but not all of it, hoping to garner free work from the open source community. Devs are the backbone of the OSS community. With out someone to sling the code, nothing gets done. Most devs are wise to these tactics, since they're not nearly as new as the marketing poohbahs think they are. Not only does it not draw as well as they'd hoped, but it has a serious backlash. Most devs, myself included, view companies who engage in such tactics with suspicion and refuse to work on the projects even if they become fully open source later.
The other business model I've seen a lot is that the product is "open source" but some how you can never get the stuff to install or work properly unless you pay for them to host the application. This *always* ticks me off and I usually let everyone I know who might be looking for a simliar package not to waste their time. I love my Tivo, and I don't mind paying for it so don't take this the wrong way. This is what I've dubbed the "Tivo business model". If any of you ever downloaded the Tivo open source project, thinking that you might be able to get a working Tivo out of the deal, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, you could eventually get it working if you hacked away at it long enough or you can just buy the thing and get on with your life.
IMHO, if you don't have a working project that I can download for free, install on my own hardware, and get working without having to hack the source code in a major way, you're not really an open source project.
I'd settled for having my vision augmented for UV, IR, and other spectra normally not visible. Particularly in low light conditions. Besides, it would be cool to never have to take my sunglasses off again.
In all honesty, I can't recommend AVG anymore. They don't update the free customers nearly as often as they update their paid products. This leaves the free customers vulnerable or infected for weeks-months at a time.
Wikipedia is useful but ot always accurate. Its community written and you can't really charge for it. Asking for donations doesn't seem to be cutting it. If it's not worth people paying to keep it around, perhaps it shouldn't survive. I know that sounds harsh, but I'm referring to the Darwinnan nature of the internet. Better stuff gets adopted and propigates. Worse stuff dies out. Behaviour patterns are geared toward some kind of a payoff. Not always one we agree with, but no less present. Personally, I wouldn't be too upset about some Google style ads.
Consider the fact that Tom or what ever his name really is changes the software on Myspace.com about as often as I change my socks, I'm wondering how well that's going to work. Ask anyone who's ever tried writing something for the ebay API.
Furthermore the whole "online friends" site is sooooo jr high. I always get a mental image of a bunch of bow head cheerleaders standing around in the girls bathroom "Nuh-uh, I do so have more friends than you."
What makes you think I didn't? The *third* time it happened to me, I got really angry and now I just refuse to contribute. If the editors want to delete in between what are obviously my saves, even though they haven't bothered to contribute anything themselves, they can pucker up and kiss my big pink butt. It should be pretty obvious that if you refresh the page and the "Last Edited" date & time keeps changing that the article is in the middle of being written and that it's being actively worked on. You could at least have the social graces to let me finish it before deciding it needs to be deleted.
Will someone please write a worm that 1) turns Windows Update on, 2) turns the Windows Firewall on, 3) turns off the keyboard & mouse ports for Windows 3.1, 95, 98, and ME machines thus forcing the retarded end users running on these platforms to upgrade, 4) installs ClamWIN and scans the hard drive, 5) installs SpyBot Search & Destroy and scans the hard drive, and 6) administers an electric shock to the aforementioned retarded end user for not taking care of this themselves?
If your dog was running around the neighborhood barking at people and biting them, they'd make you do something about the dog. I don't see why your computer gets to the do the same thing on the internet with such impunity.
I no longer write anything on Wikipedia. I've been in the process of crafting an article, saved it, and then seen it come up for deletion because the category editors didn't like it. Now mind you, this was a stub, so anything that I put there that's accurate is better than what was there - which was nothing. It usually takes me quite a while to write an article, especially when I'm citing original sources and marshaling all of my facts, dates, etc. The third time that this happened to me, I started poking around. There's a very political structure to the Wiki editing that is, IMHO, very *un*-cool.
Seriously, aren't most workers using the internet anyway? Bandwidth is bandwidth. It doesn't matter if you're at work and going out to the internet or if you're at home and traversing the internet to get to work. Most home users connections are far more throttled than work connections, so I see no real difference.
1) It took several super volcanos going off at the same time and spewing millions upon millions of tons of contaminants into the air to cause the planet to cool. One volcanic eruption occured in Minnesota and dumped nearly 20 feet of ash in locations several hundred miles away. Keep in mind that this our planet, doing what it does and sending us all into a series of ice ages. 2) Given the recovery capacity of the planet, what makes you think your puny a$$ vespa or even my brontosaur vehicle can spew enough crap to cause climatic change? 3) My behemoth puts off emissions that have to be measured in ppm and ppb - thats parts per million and parts per billon. That means you have to have millions and billions of cars to get any kind of a quantity. 4) If all the volcanic eruptions made the planet cool off, isn't it finally getting back to normal now? 5) If you don't agree with any of the above, kindly submit temprature data from the pertinent geological epoch and explain where your themometer was located.
I'm not saying global warming is complete crock, but I don't think that they've proven their case. Seriously, there's no money in everything being fine. When there's money involved, I'd like to see proof.
Are you implying that you need a forty million dollar budget to get balance, gameplay and quests right? The biggest cost in making a blockbuster game content and most of that cost is artwork. Until procedural animation becomes standard practice, this will remain so. Compare Eve Online with WoW. The latter is a blockbuster and is an example of a bland, take no risks route to development. The former was written in python on a shoestring budget and uses starships as avatars; not least to control costs. Many, many people will argue that Eve is a better game.
An MMO engine is also not just a little bit of netcode. The current trend is buying engines for Mmos, just like in FPSes. Bioware licensed the Hero Engine for its MMO in development. Hero costs a million bucks. Or you can build your MMO on BigWorld for a similar cost. The engine's role is not dissimilar to Apache's role in web services. Nobody goes about writing their own server, they create services and apps on top of that.
MV's goal to to make their engine feature competitive with Hero and BigWorld and their business model is enabling small developers who can't afford the price of entry otherwise to produce a game. Its a long tail strategy. It might suck. Most will suck. Some will be gems and those gems would not have otherwise existed. MV is gambling that among the cruft, there is an Eve or three.
We've been screwed by Microsoft again. Here's an excerpt from my blog, "After a brief phone to ATI, I was informed that both the X1800 and X1900 series cards will support the new Dx10 standard. A quick pop over to PriceWatch shows that the cheapest X1800 card is $176 and the cheapest X1900 card is $203. Now, since I'm getting the whole rest of the box for $667, I find this to be a bit steep. Hopefully, Nvidia will have something under $150." Sadly, that's not the case. This is the ONLY card from Nvidia that supports Dx10. The only sites that I've seen that are pre-selling it are in the EU. The one listed in the article in the orignal post says 605 British Pounds which works out $1,152.59 USD.
Am I only that see the irony in putting a $1000 video card in a $600 computer?
With Cable TV, you have the ability to set your television set to block specific channels - thinks like Skinamax, Spice, etc. These channels aren't automatically blocked. The parent has to sit down with the remote control and program it. I don't see why the internet should be filtered for the rest of us, because parents are too lazy to look over Little Johnny's shoulder and tell him to say off the warez site with the nasty ads.
If you want the internet filtered for your kid, install and manage your own filtering software. It's the parent's responsibility to take charge of what their children are doing, viewing, etc. It's not the content provider's problem at all, particular on a medium like the internet where you have no face to face interaction (e.g. checking ID). Frankly, if you require a valid credit card, I think you'd solve the whole issue.
My objection lies with of some of the banner ads and emails, which can be really atrocious. From time to time, I get things in my Inbox that make me cringe and wish I would remove them from my brain. "Barnyard" and "hot lovin'" should NEVER appear in the same sentence. I can only imagine something like that coming to a small child....
Frankly, I think the guys at Southpark had the right of it on Paris Hilton. Still, you have to hand it to her. She's turned being a jobless, skill-less, looser into a paycheck. And a nice hefty pay check at that... which means she's probably not as dumb as you think.
Slashdot Mirror
A surprising number of kids have no interest in and/or ability to go to college. Why force them to prepare for it?
Because even if you don't go to college, you still shouldn't be a dumbass.
2 cents,
QueenB.
Actually, in the school district I mentioned, they DO NOT, repeat DO NOT have to take Algebra I and II. They get some lame watered down version which is called Pre-Algebra. Geometry and Trig are NOT, repeat NOT required classes.
I didn't typo, I'm not wrong and I didn't stutter. If you like, I'll give you the phone # to the school district headquarters.
2 more cents,
QueenB.
What do we need to do in order to produce more IT professionals? Take a look at the list below for a few idea.
Here's my solution:
1) Poll all current welfare and permanent disability recipients. See how many are interested and capable of learning to perform IT work.
2) Instead of continuing to pump money into a system that only perpetuates poverty, educate the people who are both interested and capable. Get them a CNA or MCSE and help them get their first job. After the first paycheck, government assistance ends since at that point you should be a) getting paid and b) have health coverage.
3) Increase funding for science and math teachers from elementary school to high school. We can use the money that we're saving from the public assistance programs to fund this.
4) Increase funding for music and art. While most people don't realize this, there is a strong connection between math and music as well as science and art in the human brain. Researchers are still trying to work out exactly what it is, but studies show that there is definitely a link for most people.
5) Raise instead of lower the requirements in order to graduate high school. One of my friends has a daughter who just started high school this year. The only math requirements for her to graduate are two semesters of math. What this means is that they're only required to take and pass Pre-Algebra I & II. Since most everyone on here are IT pros of some kind, I'm sure you're aware that this doesn't cut it for college. Algebra I & II, Geometry, and Trig should be the minimum requirements, IMHO.
6) As a corollary to #5, we need to raise the requirements for science as well. Her school district only requires two semesters of science. What this really means is that you take a semester of earth science and you take health class. IMHO, you should take Biology I & II, Chemestry I & II, Anatomy & Physiology, and Physics.
7) They do require 8 semesters of English, however, I can tell you that what passes for papers in many of these classes is laughable. I have a friend who teaches freshman & sophomore composition at a local university. The level of literacy among these kids is...horrific. I've helped her grade papers and seen things like an entire 3 page paper that was a single run on sentence. These kids do not know the difference between things like "to", "too", and "two". I cannot count the number of times I've seen someone write something like "I'm going two the store." "There", "their", and "they're" is another one that they don't seem to be aware of. Then there are the kids that write papers like they send IM and text messages, "UR 4 real?"
8) Ditch "no child left behind" philosophy. This blatantly ignores the fact that some of the kids *need* to be left behind. If they cannot keep pace in a regular classroom, they need to be sent to remedial classes until they are on a par with their peers. Keeping them in the regular classrooms has a negative effect on the kids who do their work and keep up. All this has done is resulted in a dumbing down of the entire curriculum. Here in Dallas, the school district recently published an article proclaiming their pride in the fact that only 25% of the graduates last year were functionally illiterate. They're proud of this figure because it's down from 33% last year. That means 1 in 4 high school graduates cannot read and write well enough to fill out a job application at Wal-mart. They cannot add and subtract well enough to make change for a dollar. That is absolutely shameful and how anyone in their right mind can take pride in that is beyond me.
2 cents,
QueenB.
I've seen a lot of projects that you couldn't get working on *any* platform. I'll go back to my Tivo example. The Tivo OSS project didn't include a lot of proprietary code which was required in order to get the device to function "as advertised". Now, I'm not knocking Tivo for wanting to keep their proprietary code a secret. I'm knocking them for wanting to keep it a secret and still call themselves "open source".
2 more cents,
QueenB.
Open Source software tends to work on a very darwinian model. Yes, there are "category killers" (who wants to code up a new text editor?) but for the most part, when a new "category" of open source application start taking off, it generates a lot of interest. You see about a zillion projects form up on Source Forge. Those that are able to actually produce usually get weeded through based on the quality and features. With price being removed as a deciding factor, it becomes all about how good the product is. Those that are good, survive. Those that aren't, don't. Occasionally, the old stand-bys get replaced.
What I see a lot of is companies, like Second Life (gaming company) who will "open source" part of their product, but not all of it, hoping to garner free work from the open source community. Devs are the backbone of the OSS community. With out someone to sling the code, nothing gets done. Most devs are wise to these tactics, since they're not nearly as new as the marketing poohbahs think they are. Not only does it not draw as well as they'd hoped, but it has a serious backlash. Most devs, myself included, view companies who engage in such tactics with suspicion and refuse to work on the projects even if they become fully open source later.
The other business model I've seen a lot is that the product is "open source" but some how you can never get the stuff to install or work properly unless you pay for them to host the application. This *always* ticks me off and I usually let everyone I know who might be looking for a simliar package not to waste their time. I love my Tivo, and I don't mind paying for it so don't take this the wrong way. This is what I've dubbed the "Tivo business model". If any of you ever downloaded the Tivo open source project, thinking that you might be able to get a working Tivo out of the deal, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, you could eventually get it working if you hacked away at it long enough or you can just buy the thing and get on with your life.
IMHO, if you don't have a working project that I can download for free, install on my own hardware, and get working without having to hack the source code in a major way, you're not really an open source project.
2 cents,
QueenB.
I'd settled for having my vision augmented for UV, IR, and other spectra normally not visible. Particularly in low light conditions. Besides, it would be cool to never have to take my sunglasses off again.
2 cents,
QueenB.
In all honesty, I can't recommend AVG anymore. They don't update the free customers nearly as often as they update their paid products. This leaves the free customers vulnerable or infected for weeks-months at a time.
2 cents,
QueenB.
Wikipedia is useful but ot always accurate. Its community written and you can't really charge for it. Asking for donations doesn't seem to be cutting it. If it's not worth people paying to keep it around, perhaps it shouldn't survive. I know that sounds harsh, but I'm referring to the Darwinnan nature of the internet. Better stuff gets adopted and propigates. Worse stuff dies out. Behaviour patterns are geared toward some kind of a payoff. Not always one we agree with, but no less present. Personally, I wouldn't be too upset about some Google style ads.
2 cents,
QueenB.
does this mean better p0rn?
2 cents,
QueenB
Consider the fact that Tom or what ever his name really is changes the software on Myspace.com about as often as I change my socks, I'm wondering how well that's going to work. Ask anyone who's ever tried writing something for the ebay API.
Furthermore the whole "online friends" site is sooooo jr high. I always get a mental image of a bunch of bow head cheerleaders standing around in the girls bathroom "Nuh-uh, I do so have more friends than you."
2 cents,
QueenB
That's pretty much the subject of the new Apple commerical....
h tml
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2007/02/06.2.s
2 cents,
QueenB
What makes you think I didn't? The *third* time it happened to me, I got really angry and now I just refuse to contribute. If the editors want to delete in between what are obviously my saves, even though they haven't bothered to contribute anything themselves, they can pucker up and kiss my big pink butt. It should be pretty obvious that if you refresh the page and the "Last Edited" date & time keeps changing that the article is in the middle of being written and that it's being actively worked on. You could at least have the social graces to let me finish it before deciding it needs to be deleted.
2 more cents,
QueenB
Will someone please write a worm that 1) turns Windows Update on, 2) turns the Windows Firewall on, 3) turns off the keyboard & mouse ports for Windows 3.1, 95, 98, and ME machines thus forcing the retarded end users running on these platforms to upgrade, 4) installs ClamWIN and scans the hard drive, 5) installs SpyBot Search & Destroy and scans the hard drive, and 6) administers an electric shock to the aforementioned retarded end user for not taking care of this themselves?
If your dog was running around the neighborhood barking at people and biting them, they'd make you do something about the dog. I don't see why your computer gets to the do the same thing on the internet with such impunity.
2 cents,
QueenB.
I no longer write anything on Wikipedia. I've been in the process of crafting an article, saved it, and then seen it come up for deletion because the category editors didn't like it. Now mind you, this was a stub, so anything that I put there that's accurate is better than what was there - which was nothing. It usually takes me quite a while to write an article, especially when I'm citing original sources and marshaling all of my facts, dates, etc. The third time that this happened to me, I started poking around. There's a very political structure to the Wiki editing that is, IMHO, very *un*-cool.
2 cents,
Queen B.
Seriously, aren't most workers using the internet anyway? Bandwidth is bandwidth. It doesn't matter if you're at work and going out to the internet or if you're at home and traversing the internet to get to work. Most home users connections are far more throttled than work connections, so I see no real difference.
Unless you happen to be Korean....
2 cents,
Queen B.
Let's address this logically:
1) It took several super volcanos going off at the same time and spewing millions upon millions of tons of contaminants into the air to cause the planet to cool. One volcanic eruption occured in Minnesota and dumped nearly 20 feet of ash in locations several hundred miles away. Keep in mind that this our planet, doing what it does and sending us all into a series of ice ages.
2) Given the recovery capacity of the planet, what makes you think your puny a$$ vespa or even my brontosaur vehicle can spew enough crap to cause climatic change?
3) My behemoth puts off emissions that have to be measured in ppm and ppb - thats parts per million and parts per billon. That means you have to have millions and billions of cars to get any kind of a quantity.
4) If all the volcanic eruptions made the planet cool off, isn't it finally getting back to normal now?
5) If you don't agree with any of the above, kindly submit temprature data from the pertinent geological epoch and explain where your themometer was located.
I'm not saying global warming is complete crock, but I don't think that they've proven their case. Seriously, there's no money in everything being fine. When there's money involved, I'd like to see proof.
Is that even a word? Gah! You guys sound like one of the Viaga emails....
Let me give you some good reasons:
tammyfayebaker.xxx
starjones.xxx
kevenfederline.xxx
barney.xxx
gwnaked.xxx
That's just what I've got off the top of my head at 1AM. Frankly that last one is pretty scary.
It's just something else to keep me awake and make my butt bigger....
Now, if they can do it in a calorie-free version, I'll be impressed.
Are you implying that you need a forty million dollar budget to get balance, gameplay and quests right? The biggest cost in making a blockbuster game content and most of that cost is artwork. Until procedural animation becomes standard practice, this will remain so. Compare Eve Online with WoW. The latter is a blockbuster and is an example of a bland, take no risks route to development. The former was written in python on a shoestring budget and uses starships as avatars; not least to control costs. Many, many people will argue that Eve is a better game.
An MMO engine is also not just a little bit of netcode. The current trend is buying engines for Mmos, just like in FPSes. Bioware licensed the Hero Engine for its MMO in development. Hero costs a million bucks. Or you can build your MMO on BigWorld for a similar cost. The engine's role is not dissimilar to Apache's role in web services. Nobody goes about writing their own server, they create services and apps on top of that.
MV's goal to to make their engine feature competitive with Hero and BigWorld and their business model is enabling small developers who can't afford the price of entry otherwise to produce a game. Its a long tail strategy. It might suck. Most will suck. Some will be gems and those gems would not have otherwise existed. MV is gambling that among the cruft, there is an Eve or three.
We've been screwed by Microsoft again. Here's an excerpt from my blog, "After a brief phone to ATI, I was informed that both the X1800 and X1900 series cards will support the new Dx10 standard. A quick pop over to PriceWatch shows that the cheapest X1800 card is $176 and the cheapest X1900 card is $203. Now, since I'm getting the whole rest of the box for $667, I find this to be a bit steep. Hopefully, Nvidia will have something under $150." Sadly, that's not the case. This is the ONLY card from Nvidia that supports Dx10. The only sites that I've seen that are pre-selling it are in the EU. The one listed in the article in the orignal post says 605 British Pounds which works out $1,152.59 USD.
Am I only that see the irony in putting a $1000 video card in a $600 computer?
2 cents,
QueenB
With Cable TV, you have the ability to set your television set to block specific channels - thinks like Skinamax, Spice, etc. These channels aren't automatically blocked. The parent has to sit down with the remote control and program it. I don't see why the internet should be filtered for the rest of us, because parents are too lazy to look over Little Johnny's shoulder and tell him to say off the warez site with the nasty ads.
If you want the internet filtered for your kid, install and manage your own filtering software. It's the parent's responsibility to take charge of what their children are doing, viewing, etc. It's not the content provider's problem at all, particular on a medium like the internet where you have no face to face interaction (e.g. checking ID). Frankly, if you require a valid credit card, I think you'd solve the whole issue.
My objection lies with of some of the banner ads and emails, which can be really atrocious. From time to time, I get things in my Inbox that make me cringe and wish I would remove them from my brain. "Barnyard" and "hot lovin'" should NEVER appear in the same sentence. I can only imagine something like that coming to a small child....
2 cents,
QueenB
Frankly, I think the guys at Southpark had the right of it on Paris Hilton. Still, you have to hand it to her. She's turned being a jobless, skill-less, looser into a paycheck. And a nice hefty pay check at that... which means she's probably not as dumb as you think.
2 cents,
QueenB.
Forget playing the game....the vibrating controllers were nice....now if they were just washable...
2 cents,
QueenB.
Having recently observed the Vista interface in action, I can say that they've done a nice job of ripping off the OSX look and feel.
They have dashboard widgets.
They've pared down the start menu and it looks more like the dock on a Mac.
The way things load looks more like a Mac.
Just my 2 cents,
QueenB.