I understand the disappointment. I was disappointed when the narrator said, "This is the essence of the Second Renaissance." Well, uh, duh.
And while I was initially disappointed like you, I think that you were hoping for an ending that described everything a la Star Trek, where this short wasn't attempting that. It was building the character of the machines. We know who humans are, we can identify with them. We don't know the machines, nor their motives. This showed that the machines are ruthless killers interested in self-preservation without strife. And it showed their determination to get there. That nuke in the end, after the signing was indicitave of that.
And the imagery of the Apple (think Eve) was crazy powerful to boot.
ADD is not an excuse used only by teachers, but also (and porbably more often) by parents. There are distinct advantages a child can reap by being diagnosed with ADD. Foremost are better grades and test scores that result from more lenient grading, extra time on exams and more individual attention.
I agree that ADD is often a misdiagnosis, and that alleged "ADDs" are really just bored with History class. But, I disagree that giving them more access to a computer will somehow give the child the ability to find his own way to learn. We're not talking about grad students researching a thesis, but teenagers that would rather be at the mall. I don' t know about you, but when I was in 10th grade the last thing I wanted to do was get on a computer to experiement with the Graphing Calculator App.
I hope that spellcheck is comming soon to slashdot.:)
Seriously though, I think that in the 80s a huge importance was placed upon computer education. The common notion was that everyone will need to know how to operate a computer later in life.
Well, they were partially right. Everyone should know how to operate a computer, but for practical purposes in High School education, that's a 2 hour class with perhaps a semester course in typing.
A computer will do much of the work for you. It will do your math, check your grammar, and allow you to do research from your home. The problems here are obvious. There is little need to do things for yourself. I've found that most children do not have the discipline to willingly learn advanced math and grammar on their own. The problem is two-fold here though because many parents don't have the discipline to discipline their kids.
As for research, I'll be quite blunt. The net is a poor tool for younger students. There is too much opinion and just plain bull shit on the web to be of great use. It takes a more seasoned approach and a level head to be able to filter out the crap, and I don't think the majority of high school kids benefit by using it to do their research work.
It's not a one-size fits all situation however, and it's difficult to administer a solution. If I were in charge though, I'd have one guideline: If your kid has ADD or some other modern learning disability that requires he get special attention in school, his computer access should be limited. Afterall, the kid's problem is distraction, so a computer (with web access is even worse) is definitely going to be a greater distraction than a learning tool.
I think the orignal concept of the web got lost somewhere. I was under the impression that the Internet itself was designed [by Al Gore:)] to not have a "control center." So that it could function even if most of it was destroyed. But now the internet has been altered into a network that relies on a few DNS servers. Why? So my bookmarks don't have to keep track of IPs? That seems silly. I am also pretty certain that my email address will cease to function without DNS servers as well. So without DNS I can neither access web pages nor email. This is somehow progress?
The author of the article did mention that it is available by reasearching the Oakland County Real Estate transactions. His name should be on the record, and if not, how many $740,000 homes do you suppose sold recently?
I switched the user agent in iCab to "iCab;2.5.3..." and it wouldn't let me in. NS4.7 did render though.
I say screw 'em. If they can't design a site that is compatible with a variety of browsers like every other site on the web, then they'll just lose traffic.
Slashdot Mirror
I understand the disappointment. I was disappointed when the narrator said, "This is the essence of the Second Renaissance." Well, uh, duh.
And while I was initially disappointed like you, I think that you were hoping for an ending that described everything a la Star Trek, where this short wasn't attempting that. It was building the character of the machines. We know who humans are, we can identify with them. We don't know the machines, nor their motives. This showed that the machines are ruthless killers interested in self-preservation without strife. And it showed their determination to get there. That nuke in the end, after the signing was indicitave of that.
And the imagery of the Apple (think Eve) was crazy powerful to boot.
Thank you. I don't post often, but I was about to post this very sentiment.
It's one thing to report news, another to report the announcement of news to be.
Besides, do we really need another Apple rumor/speculation site?
ADD is not an excuse used only by teachers, but also (and porbably more often) by parents. There are distinct advantages a child can reap by being diagnosed with ADD. Foremost are better grades and test scores that result from more lenient grading, extra time on exams and more individual attention.
I agree that ADD is often a misdiagnosis, and that alleged "ADDs" are really just bored with History class. But, I disagree that giving them more access to a computer will somehow give the child the ability to find his own way to learn. We're not talking about grad students researching a thesis, but teenagers that would rather be at the mall. I don' t know about you, but when I was in 10th grade the last thing I wanted to do was get on a computer to experiement with the Graphing Calculator App.
But maybe I'm crazy.
I hope that spellcheck is comming soon to slashdot. :)
Seriously though, I think that in the 80s a huge importance was placed upon computer education. The common notion was that everyone will need to know how to operate a computer later in life.
Well, they were partially right. Everyone should know how to operate a computer, but for practical purposes in High School education, that's a 2 hour class with perhaps a semester course in typing.
A computer will do much of the work for you. It will do your math, check your grammar, and allow you to do research from your home. The problems here are obvious. There is little need to do things for yourself. I've found that most children do not have the discipline to willingly learn advanced math and grammar on their own. The problem is two-fold here though because many parents don't have the discipline to discipline their kids.
As for research, I'll be quite blunt. The net is a poor tool for younger students. There is too much opinion and just plain bull shit on the web to be of great use. It takes a more seasoned approach and a level head to be able to filter out the crap, and I don't think the majority of high school kids benefit by using it to do their research work.
It's not a one-size fits all situation however, and it's difficult to administer a solution. If I were in charge though, I'd have one guideline: If your kid has ADD or some other modern learning disability that requires he get special attention in school, his computer access should be limited. Afterall, the kid's problem is distraction, so a computer (with web access is even worse) is definitely going to be a greater distraction than a learning tool.
I think the orignal concept of the web got lost somewhere. I was under the impression that the Internet itself was designed [by Al Gore :)] to not have a "control center." So that it could function even if most of it was destroyed. But now the internet has been altered into a network that relies on a few DNS servers. Why? So my bookmarks don't have to keep track of IPs? That seems silly. I am also pretty certain that my email address will cease to function without DNS servers as well. So without DNS I can neither access web pages nor email. This is somehow progress?
The author of the article did mention that it is available by reasearching the Oakland County Real Estate transactions. His name should be on the record, and if not, how many $740,000 homes do you suppose sold recently?
How about some Outlook awareness classes?
I switched the user agent in iCab to "iCab;2.5.3..." and it wouldn't let me in. NS4.7 did render though.
I say screw 'em. If they can't design a site that is compatible with a variety of browsers like every other site on the web, then they'll just lose traffic.
Like the world will stop without msn.com