That i like FPSs, the shirt with a tent that says "camper" or the "I see fragged people" shirt is a dead give away. That and me and my freinds can be over heard chatting about "juicy gibbs".
That and you can hear me screaming "OMG you fsking CAMPER!" from my room between 1000db flack bursts.
And you can tell that I am a RPGer since I hum the Final Fantasy win theme after aceing a test.
Please note that parent used the qualifier "MOST", by citing a couple exceptions you don't prove the MOST people make contributions after 30, or life a life full of acheivement. And, too be really truthful, Nobody except physicists give a rats ass about Hawkings, he does nothing for anyone except those theoretical types. Doubtful that his ideas will ever translate into something useful for the common man. And in reality MOST people never make a signifigant contribution in any way at all. Most people exist to keep their office chairs from floating away, and with life extension they will keep them chairs earthbound for 200 more years, YAYYY Productivity!
Not related to your comment: I really doubt that extended life will be good in the case of specialization. Right now you have to be retrained/updated every 2 years or so in some industries (more in others, I'm sure). And if tech continues to advance at the rate it is, these long-lived people will be on the ball for a year, then spend the rest of their lives behind the times. Look at the majority of pre-digital people (Boomers, and down), the adoption of new ideas/technology is low once your reach your 40s. So we'll have billions of people completely ignorant of advances for 190 years. Thats a long time for the VCR timer to be blinking.
Also, with an extended retirement age, what of those who refuse life extension, out of religious or moral grounds, or those who can't afford it? Are they then expected to work until their 90's as well? Or do we just leave them in the dust?
And what of the fact that we'd be in direct competition with our children, grand children, g.g.children, ad naseum? Isn't this an ethical dillema? You'd have children, only to strive for them to be lower on the totem pole than you, trying to steal resources from them for your own benefit... Something wrong with that.
What of the old buggers who refuse to EVER leave power? We'd have ideologues in congress for 200 years, instead of just 100 as it is now. This leads to a static policy system, stagnation.
What about jobs, period? If we can't even supply jobs to those alive now, how can we supply jobs to a world where there are BILLIONS more people?
What about youth discrimination? The old will rule the world, leaving the under 50 crowd to be a vast underclass.
So many problems.
Bad idea, the whole life extension thing.
(gasp, I just said something "new and futuristic" is a bad thing on/.! I *must* be a flamer)
it exists, its called Tuscon, Arizona. Because of the large obseritory (kitt peak) there they have some of the most stringent anti-light-pollution laws that I know off. Though that is changing because of the Sprawl and ex-Califonian yuppies. Nice city, thoughout most of it, it is hard to tell that it is a city of a million folk. Lots of native terrain all thoughout the city, not many street lamps, limits on billboards and signs. Great place.
I know that the parent was funny, and supposed to be, but to me it high-lights (pun not intended) a serious problem. What happens when people get completely disconnected from the enviroment/universe. Get fully accustomed to a completely artificial condition, and prefer it. Are we becoming disconnected from who we are, where we came from, and what spiritual/intellectial/philosophical/political problems does this make for us as a species or culture.
When we get disconnected from something we no longer respect it, we fear it, loath it. In cities we're disconnected from the enviroment, and see no qualms about destroying it except for the enviromentalism trend (which shouldn't be confused with an actual caring about the enviroment, hence the word 'trend'). So whats going to happen when we become completely disconnected from the heavens, and gleefully accept this. The stars have guided thousands of years human spirituality and philosophy, what happens when we loose that?
I would consider most urbanites as severely mentally ill, with our odd paranoia about darkness. We must ALWAYS cloak ourselves in light and noise to protect us from ourselves and our enviroment. What are we REALLY afraid of?
OT but related, ever go someplace nice and notice that they HAVE TO pipe noise into it, ALWAYS. Out here in Arizona in the Verde Valley there is a casino/resort with a WONDERFUL view of an ancient lake bed and pristine desert, looking out from the entrance way is just great, except the fact that there is CONSTANT piped music, it makes it impossible to EVER relax. The same goes for all this damn light everywhere, it becomes impossible to EVER relax, or dissassociate yourself from society, even for a second.
Turn off all the lights, or light generating things (monitor, case mods, TV, whatnot), turn off all the sound, fans, whatnot, and look and listen. Odds are, if you live in a city or even a small town it will be noisy and bright. The only way to get away from it is to travel hundreds of miles away, and even then there are still flight paths and stupid tourists, lost urbanites, and partying teenagers.
Though I remember that back in the day Cyrix was the... uh... crap parts for lack of better words. We used to sit around making fun things running cyrix chips/mobos. We used to SERIOUSLY beat on them and their parts. I had an old BBS running on a pc with the cyrix 166, ran okay, but had heat problems, was kinda unstable, not very good for a 5 node BBS. But it was a bargain box, and it's hard to tell what is being crappy, the cyrix chip, or the crappy mobo.
IMHO you get what you pay for. You buy a cheapo PC you get crap in the end. If you want to scimp out of paying for a real PC, then DON'T buy one. But I guess there will alway be a place in the market for the crap part market, like Cyrix and ECS.
I just hope that AMD doesn't get any ideas from them and start making bad chips for cheaper. So far AMD has been very cost effective, making superior chips cheaper, that use less power and make less heat. but if they start just going for ONLY the cheap like Cyrix did i have a feeling I'm going to become an Intel guy (like there is a damn choice).
Damn, and I always thought that it had some deep esoteric geek meaning. Like moving up to the next metaphysical geek directory int he grand directory hierarchy in the sky.
Re:a MUSICAL exercise and a question about ADHD
on
How Do You Get Work Done?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I am a psych major, but I have to agree that ADHD is for the most part a scapegoat, I was diagnosed with it as a kid, but could sit on a computer, or infront of a book for 8 hours, oblivious to the rest of the world. So I'm guessing that I had the old cliche "not challenged enough" disorder instead. Yes, I'd say ADHD is something to label hard to handle kids, a nice diagnosis that allows them to be drugged into passivity for the benefit of over taxed teachers.
But, in my experience in clinics, and with some "problem children" ADHD is also a very real illness. Some children DO have it, and you can tell easily which ones have the label for convenience, and which one actually suffer. So you can't completely dismiss the disorder just because it has been misdiagnosed a signifigant number of times. Also in kids with severe ADHD you can see abnormality in MRIs and brain scans, so their is an undeniable physiological component, and a measurable chemical component to the real disorder.
I'd say that under 50% of the current crop of ADHD kids actually have a disorder, and the rest of them are just normal (or brighter than normal) kids who are bored or overly inquisitive.
With that out of the way, I'd say that under 50% of the current kids with REAL ADHD actually need drugs to control it, teaching self-discipline using coginitive conditioning works very well, and benefits them throughout their life, even when they "out-grow" ADHD. Sometimes drugs might be needed to stabalize them to the point where therapy is possible, but should not be continued past active therapy. Ridalin is not a panacea.
This really isn't the psychologist fault (some of it is), but the school systems. My parents were threatened with my expulsion if I wasn't doped up. The amount of pressure put forth by the schools is ultimately to blaim for this epidemic of ADHD cases. That and it enter the pop-psych movement, and the national psyche, making it a convenient scape-goat for the lack of self-discipline.
I can't find a link to an online DSM (the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic Criteria Manual) but it is a recognized psychiatric disorder. I have a physical copy, but no online copy, sorry. Do a search in google for "DSM online ADHD" and you can see that it IS officially recognized.
Re:Well i live in Europe (Belgium)...
on
The Beast of Brussels
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
It really is too bad you posted this A.C., since you DO bring up a valid point.
What you said is a serious dillema, I think that you have to go with the national vibe, if you have a good liberal government, with a precendent of being virtuous to the people, think I'm guessing that you just have to trust them. Some governments have a solid history of being good guys, and there is no option but to trust them. Constant paranoia, no matter how justified, is too stressful in a state that does not warrant it.
Americans have a reasons (some justified, some not) to be paranoid. And American culture is based on a healthy sense of paranoia, it is just part of the country. Woven into the fabric, if you will. And please mind, we're not talking of terrorism, or economy, we're talking of pure practicality, to tell the truth a national ID makes sense, it has less possibility of fraud than giving out your social (though the risk is still there). I personally wouldn't really be that upset if America issued a national card, different thanyour social/drivers liscence, being that these cards are essencially ill-planned national IDs already.
Please mind that I am very proud to be an American, even with all its nasty faults (and their multiplying like rabbits), and I am scared of my government. But this does NOT make Americans typical of the rest of the world. And most of the time I happen to agree with the EU, and not my home country.
But, back OT, the actual myth of a giant computer tracking everything is scary, to everyone I hope. Since that is a MASSIVE violation of personal freedom/privacy. But I was only posting about Belgiums national ID, not big brother. While I'm sure America would LOVE big brother computers, I doubt most of the governments of the world would actually stand up for it.
Re:Well i live in Europe (Belgium)...
on
The Beast of Brussels
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I must say more power to you, if you trast government enough to have such a thing. I'm guessing that such trust is warrented being that I've never heard a bad thing about Belgium (though I am an American, so I might be missing something) In America this is a bad thing, because our government is (sad to say) broken. You can't trust a system that has gotten too big for its britches, too little interest in the common man, too much in the economy/politics. Belgium may face the same distrust, but I doubt it.
I think it may be a cultural thing, places where "Freedom" (Capitol 'F', pronounced 'individualism') aren't likely to promote such ideas. Though I wouldn't be suprised if continental europe adopted such an idea.
I really like this idea. I have 'issues' with organ donation (and blood/plasma donation). Like previously stated, I don't want doctors to rush my death to save people, I like my life and they're going to have to wait in line, like patient terminal patients. Also, I am dubious on my prefered disposal after death, so don't really know if I want my organs going elsewhere, interupting my successful reuptake into the nitrogen cycle.
But one of my main problems is with who it goes to. This is the same reason I don't donate blood. I want to check out who I'm saving, so I don't waste a perfectly good kidney on a moron I'd rather see dead. Like that bruhaha in California, where the prisoner got preferencial donation, I don't a murderer getting my liver. I don't want an SUV driving soccer mom getting it either, or George Bush, or pretty much most of society. Maybe if the Dali Lama needed a heart I'd help 'im out.
Now if I got to know the possible recipriants before death, and liked them, then I wouldn't mind. Keeps my marrow from falling into the carpals of a serial killer, lawyer, or politician. Maybe small organ pacts, like me and my five freinds sign a binding contract, or some such.
Yes, I'm a non-charitable ass. I just dislike most people, and don't care about those who I don't know enough to literally give them part of myself.
I think the problem is seperating the wheat from the chaff. Their must be MILLIONS of indie bands in the U.S. alone, and only 10% of them are any good, but then you have the tastes of the listeners to contend with. Personally I have found many indie bands I like, but its not in my my genres.
And while the big music stuff has the same 10% ratio, it gets more exposure, so it's easier to come in contact with something you like. And while those big indie mp3 databases are very nice and all, I really don't want to listen to 50 bands, just to find one I can listen too. Too much hastle, I did it once when mp3.com didn't suck and after 3 days had a list of bands I liked, and only 2 of 'em sticked with me.
Stability is another problem with the idie scene. You never know if your indie band of choice will be there tomorrow, and if they leave they will not leave a body of recording that can be bought at your local used music store. I know that if a big industry band goes under I can hit up my local campus Zia Records and pick up their old stuff, but if the indie goes away, then your screwed, stuck with old Mp3's or Ogg's.
While I haven't bought a new CD since the last Tool CD came out, I also haven't discovered any American indie bands that I like, especially since most of them are styled as "sounds like..." If I wanted something that sounded like a band I like, I'd just buy their album.
I agree that uninstalling can be a task, but alot of that is the uninstall setups that other use. If you use a 3rd party install/uninstall program it really fixes most of that. At least it doesn't have the issue that 95/98 had were it couldn't delete recursive directories. XP seems smarter, not perfect, but smarter.
The reg is easily fixed, download RegCleaner from www.jv16.org, every once in a while do the fix command, then go through the app keys and delete obsolete keys. I clean my registry about once a month, or after I uninstall something big.
A lot of it has to do with the extra stuff, like finding all the remnant files, and doing an old DLL sweep to remove those. Really got to work for a good OS, every OS requires some savvy on the users part to remain nice, fast, and stable, except maybe OSX, but I don't know about that even.
Though I'll admit after swapping video/sound cards you really need to reformat, some of those drivers (especially old 3dfx ones) really stick around in odd places. And Windows is plagued with conflicts when you mobo has bad onboards (like ECS mobos).
Yes, Windows has inherent flaws (as do every other OS), and yes being that MS is the developer they lay on MS' doorstep. But it's up to the user to find the work-arounds. 60/40 sounds fair, 60% MS' fault, and 40% user error.
Every OS I've used extensively has had its own unique issues to cope with. To me *nix is as flawed as XP. OSX I have no clue about, but I'm sure it's there too.
Actually my old copy of Win98se probably only seriously crashed once a week, BSOD I mean. The only time it locked up was with hardware issue, and bad installs. The other crashes were due to my constant reg tweaking.
My copy of XP pro SP1 has only BSOD'd once, and that was because I tried to install a scanner driver for 2k, and it BSOD'd, and then I retried twice and BSOD'd both time. Once I had explorer.exe crash. B ut other than that it is completely free of nasty crash bugs, just some slow downs. Very stable.
Most crashes in windows is because of people doing stupid stuff, or installing bad things, they are not completely inherent in the OS. I'd say the Windows/Linux stabilty comparisons are not really that different, considering that Linux has a more knowledgable and tech savvy user-base than windows, the choice of Ma and Pa Average. And beleive me, Ma and Pa average could probably do something stupid enough to screw up any OS, and with Linux their screw-ups would be WORSE.
Wasn't McCarthyism a police state? J. Edgar Hoover collect information on all sorts of "unamerican" activities? America HAS had a police state, and we're getting another one.
I do use some cookie, I have firebird and IE prompt though, then go clean 'em up with my weekly cleaning, except the cookies I use day to day.
Mostly I do this to prevent usage tracking. Also I can totally see some people refusing cookies all together because they figure that it is THEIR computer and THEY should have complete control about what is put on it. It's a territorial type thing. Don't want doubleclick pissing on your terf.
I find most sites are quite irresponsible with cookies, and mostly use them to tell how many times I have visited, and the cookies have no actual benefit for me. I allow/. because I don't like being an AC, I allow Amazon, I allow my schools cookies, and a couple forums cookies because I get something out of it, easy access. But deny everything else, especially if they are ad.* cookies. Just out of principle.
And with no love of knowledge instilled during youth, how many would go enrich themselves. I figure most of them will quit education when they are economically viable, and thus think that their feild is the only feild that matters (like most geneticists today), and that their ideology is the only ideology.
Speciallization is selective ignorance. Speciallization leads to intellectual arrogance.
Also, judging from the amount of career jumps that an average person makes, I'd bet that a broadbased education is safer than just going for one feild, without any other experience. Most of my post-college freinds started college majoring in one thing, and then switched to something they liked much better that they wouldn't have had contact with if it wasn't for the broad nature of universities. Hell, I've switched my course of education/future plans twice now, and am glad that I have. Wanted to go into IT, then realized that it is a souless profession (to me, couldn't do with the lack of personal interaction, and interfacing with a machine all day, and IT people have a signifigant boon of mental illness late in their careers for these reasons. Not making a judgment on others taste, mind) Then switched to psychology with a heavy emphasis on philosophy, then realized that it was equally souless, and moved on to wildlife biology. Each time I took a signifigant pay cut, but probably increased my quality of life. Much rather live in a studio apartment doing what I love, than having a 12 bedroom house and a Jag doing what I hate. Money isn't everything, money is pretty inconsiquencial compared to happyness, and doing what you love.
Looking at the last two articles on/.'s home, I'm scared./. is devolving into an art journal, poems have sex, and street theature. Hmm.... SCO isn't suing anyone new, right? No new RIAA conflicts? Lets cover ART!
Though I personally dig this in a Discordian kind of way, very op mindf*ck.
Cobralingus, by the british sci-fi author jeff noon (www.cobralingus.com) Text mutation engine, he wrote a whole book with it called Needle in the Groove, and parts of his collection of short stories Pixel Juice are written with it. Kinda fun to play with, but like the page posted it mostly constructs nonsense.
Great, I really want the world run by a bunch of people lacking a sense of scope. I think that every one needs a well rounded education before specializing, so you have a sense of where your feild fits, and the greater impact it has. People going to school just for a future pay check make me very depressed, they are going to lead to our downfall for their lack of perspective and ethics.
And really it isn't a rich kid luxury, I've been attending college level classed for over 5 years now, and am now getting ready to attend my second university, after another breif stint in the Maricopa Community College system. Oh, and I'm dirt poor, living in a one bedroom apartment in the ghetto, working a job much under my skill level. But to me, being well rounded is essencial, I'd much rather be intelligent, than programmed. I'd much rather 'waste my time' on all those 'useless' philosophy courses than go to school for 2 years so I can be some nasty proffesional, blind of everything except on specific feild.
First off, like lecturers themselves the webpage approach can be a double edged sword. I took an enviromental biology class that was 1/3 online, 1/3 lecture, and 1/3 lab. Worked out very well, with some pretty intense discussion (mostly OT) on the online forums, and was a good place to turn in homework, being that you had until 11:59pm Saturday night to turn in assignments. Much drunken fumbling with the Mozilla mail client usually ensued at 11:30.
But then I also took a human anatomy and physiology class that was 50% lecture and had its labs online. I really missed alot of stuff, since a Java or Flash cadavre isn't quite as good as the real thing. Kind of defeated the purpose of a lab, though i'm sure it saved the school some money. On the same note, this school also taught Marine Biology completely online, which to me is the silliest thing in the world. Life sciences are meant to be hands on.
But some students also cannot learn from pure text. I took a lit mythology class that was completely written lecture notes, with the real life lecture being merely a fill in the blank session, and discussion of the notes. I picked up what was discussed, but not the main body of the class. I can't learn from pure text, I need the damn lecture. But for some student it could be nice, I'm sure, just not all.
Moving on to your first point. the lecture has been around since the Greeks, and has worked damn well for over 2000 years, so I don't see whats wrong with it. For certain subjects I can see deviating from the tried and true format, like in technological or information sciences, but for the most part I have to go with the old saying, "If it ain't broke don't fix it"
Also by increasing the technological component in learning we risk catering to those with a short attention span, which was given to them by the media and the psychological based teaching methods developed during the 60's onwards. I really see no reason to make these people feel that their twitching ability should be welcomed in an educational enviroment. University isn't high school, university should be hard to seperate the dross. But this is a whole 'nother rant, that I will drop now for the fear of -1 flamebait.
Slashdot Mirror
That i like FPSs, the shirt with a tent that says "camper" or the "I see fragged people" shirt is a dead give away. That and me and my freinds can be over heard chatting about "juicy gibbs".
That and you can hear me screaming "OMG you fsking CAMPER!" from my room between 1000db flack bursts.
And you can tell that I am a RPGer since I hum the Final Fantasy win theme after aceing a test.
Wearing my geekyness on my sleeve...
And I recommended this to my local "campus crusade" and got a guilt trip for not being PC. Not the "CCC" either.
Please note that parent used the qualifier "MOST", by citing a couple exceptions you don't prove the MOST people make contributions after 30, or life a life full of acheivement. And, too be really truthful, Nobody except physicists give a rats ass about Hawkings, he does nothing for anyone except those theoretical types. Doubtful that his ideas will ever translate into something useful for the common man. And in reality MOST people never make a signifigant contribution in any way at all. Most people exist to keep their office chairs from floating away, and with life extension they will keep them chairs earthbound for 200 more years, YAYYY Productivity!
/.! I *must* be a flamer)
Not related to your comment: I really doubt that extended life will be good in the case of specialization. Right now you have to be retrained/updated every 2 years or so in some industries (more in others, I'm sure). And if tech continues to advance at the rate it is, these long-lived people will be on the ball for a year, then spend the rest of their lives behind the times. Look at the majority of pre-digital people (Boomers, and down), the adoption of new ideas/technology is low once your reach your 40s. So we'll have billions of people completely ignorant of advances for 190 years. Thats a long time for the VCR timer to be blinking.
Also, with an extended retirement age, what of those who refuse life extension, out of religious or moral grounds, or those who can't afford it? Are they then expected to work until their 90's as well? Or do we just leave them in the dust?
And what of the fact that we'd be in direct competition with our children, grand children, g.g.children, ad naseum? Isn't this an ethical dillema? You'd have children, only to strive for them to be lower on the totem pole than you, trying to steal resources from them for your own benefit... Something wrong with that.
What of the old buggers who refuse to EVER leave power? We'd have ideologues in congress for 200 years, instead of just 100 as it is now. This leads to a static policy system, stagnation.
What about jobs, period? If we can't even supply jobs to those alive now, how can we supply jobs to a world where there are BILLIONS more people?
What about youth discrimination? The old will rule the world, leaving the under 50 crowd to be a vast underclass.
So many problems.
Bad idea, the whole life extension thing.
(gasp, I just said something "new and futuristic" is a bad thing on
it exists, its called Tuscon, Arizona. Because of the large obseritory (kitt peak) there they have some of the most stringent anti-light-pollution laws that I know off. Though that is changing because of the Sprawl and ex-Califonian yuppies. Nice city, thoughout most of it, it is hard to tell that it is a city of a million folk. Lots of native terrain all thoughout the city, not many street lamps, limits on billboards and signs. Great place.
I know that the parent was funny, and supposed to be, but to me it high-lights (pun not intended) a serious problem. What happens when people get completely disconnected from the enviroment/universe. Get fully accustomed to a completely artificial condition, and prefer it. Are we becoming disconnected from who we are, where we came from, and what spiritual/intellectial/philosophical/political problems does this make for us as a species or culture.
When we get disconnected from something we no longer respect it, we fear it, loath it. In cities we're disconnected from the enviroment, and see no qualms about destroying it except for the enviromentalism trend (which shouldn't be confused with an actual caring about the enviroment, hence the word 'trend'). So whats going to happen when we become completely disconnected from the heavens, and gleefully accept this. The stars have guided thousands of years human spirituality and philosophy, what happens when we loose that?
I would consider most urbanites as severely mentally ill, with our odd paranoia about darkness. We must ALWAYS cloak ourselves in light and noise to protect us from ourselves and our enviroment. What are we REALLY afraid of?
OT but related, ever go someplace nice and notice that they HAVE TO pipe noise into it, ALWAYS. Out here in Arizona in the Verde Valley there is a casino/resort with a WONDERFUL view of an ancient lake bed and pristine desert, looking out from the entrance way is just great, except the fact that there is CONSTANT piped music, it makes it impossible to EVER relax. The same goes for all this damn light everywhere, it becomes impossible to EVER relax, or dissassociate yourself from society, even for a second.
Turn off all the lights, or light generating things (monitor, case mods, TV, whatnot), turn off all the sound, fans, whatnot, and look and listen. Odds are, if you live in a city or even a small town it will be noisy and bright. The only way to get away from it is to travel hundreds of miles away, and even then there are still flight paths and stupid tourists, lost urbanites, and partying teenagers.
Sad. But then again I am a tech-savvy luddite.
Though I remember that back in the day Cyrix was the... uh... crap parts for lack of better words. We used to sit around making fun things running cyrix chips/mobos. We used to SERIOUSLY beat on them and their parts. I had an old BBS running on a pc with the cyrix 166, ran okay, but had heat problems, was kinda unstable, not very good for a 5 node BBS. But it was a bargain box, and it's hard to tell what is being crappy, the cyrix chip, or the crappy mobo.
IMHO you get what you pay for. You buy a cheapo PC you get crap in the end. If you want to scimp out of paying for a real PC, then DON'T buy one. But I guess there will alway be a place in the market for the crap part market, like Cyrix and ECS.
I just hope that AMD doesn't get any ideas from them and start making bad chips for cheaper. So far AMD has been very cost effective, making superior chips cheaper, that use less power and make less heat. but if they start just going for ONLY the cheap like Cyrix did i have a feeling I'm going to become an Intel guy (like there is a damn choice).
Please reread my post, I didn't dismiss it, I dismissed a large portion of it. You may fall into either class, how am I supposed to know?
I clearly said that ADHD is a valid diagnosis, and that there is a clear symptomology behind it, but it is over diagnosed for control purposes.
Damn, and I always thought that it had some deep esoteric geek meaning. Like moving up to the next metaphysical geek directory int he grand directory hierarchy in the sky.
I am a psych major, but I have to agree that ADHD is for the most part a scapegoat, I was diagnosed with it as a kid, but could sit on a computer, or infront of a book for 8 hours, oblivious to the rest of the world. So I'm guessing that I had the old cliche "not challenged enough" disorder instead. Yes, I'd say ADHD is something to label hard to handle kids, a nice diagnosis that allows them to be drugged into passivity for the benefit of over taxed teachers.
But, in my experience in clinics, and with some "problem children" ADHD is also a very real illness. Some children DO have it, and you can tell easily which ones have the label for convenience, and which one actually suffer. So you can't completely dismiss the disorder just because it has been misdiagnosed a signifigant number of times. Also in kids with severe ADHD you can see abnormality in MRIs and brain scans, so their is an undeniable physiological component, and a measurable chemical component to the real disorder.
I'd say that under 50% of the current crop of ADHD kids actually have a disorder, and the rest of them are just normal (or brighter than normal) kids who are bored or overly inquisitive.
With that out of the way, I'd say that under 50% of the current kids with REAL ADHD actually need drugs to control it, teaching self-discipline using coginitive conditioning works very well, and benefits them throughout their life, even when they "out-grow" ADHD. Sometimes drugs might be needed to stabalize them to the point where therapy is possible, but should not be continued past active therapy. Ridalin is not a panacea.
This really isn't the psychologist fault (some of it is), but the school systems. My parents were threatened with my expulsion if I wasn't doped up. The amount of pressure put forth by the schools is ultimately to blaim for this epidemic of ADHD cases. That and it enter the pop-psych movement, and the national psyche, making it a convenient scape-goat for the lack of self-discipline.
I can't find a link to an online DSM (the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic Criteria Manual) but it is a recognized psychiatric disorder. I have a physical copy, but no online copy, sorry. Do a search in google for "DSM online ADHD" and you can see that it IS officially recognized.
It really is too bad you posted this A.C., since you DO bring up a valid point.
What you said is a serious dillema, I think that you have to go with the national vibe, if you have a good liberal government, with a precendent of being virtuous to the people, think I'm guessing that you just have to trust them. Some governments have a solid history of being good guys, and there is no option but to trust them. Constant paranoia, no matter how justified, is too stressful in a state that does not warrant it.
Americans have a reasons (some justified, some not) to be paranoid. And American culture is based on a healthy sense of paranoia, it is just part of the country. Woven into the fabric, if you will. And please mind, we're not talking of terrorism, or economy, we're talking of pure practicality, to tell the truth a national ID makes sense, it has less possibility of fraud than giving out your social (though the risk is still there). I personally wouldn't really be that upset if America issued a national card, different thanyour social/drivers liscence, being that these cards are essencially ill-planned national IDs already.
Please mind that I am very proud to be an American, even with all its nasty faults (and their multiplying like rabbits), and I am scared of my government. But this does NOT make Americans typical of the rest of the world. And most of the time I happen to agree with the EU, and not my home country.
But, back OT, the actual myth of a giant computer tracking everything is scary, to everyone I hope. Since that is a MASSIVE violation of personal freedom/privacy. But I was only posting about Belgiums national ID, not big brother. While I'm sure America would LOVE big brother computers, I doubt most of the governments of the world would actually stand up for it.
I must say more power to you, if you trast government enough to have such a thing. I'm guessing that such trust is warrented being that I've never heard a bad thing about Belgium (though I am an American, so I might be missing something) In America this is a bad thing, because our government is (sad to say) broken. You can't trust a system that has gotten too big for its britches, too little interest in the common man, too much in the economy/politics. Belgium may face the same distrust, but I doubt it.
I think it may be a cultural thing, places where "Freedom" (Capitol 'F', pronounced 'individualism') aren't likely to promote such ideas. Though I wouldn't be suprised if continental europe adopted such an idea.
A universe full of life, all with seti programs, just listening to each other listening to each other.
A universe full of introverts, wouldn't it be ironic.
I really like this idea. I have 'issues' with organ donation (and blood/plasma donation). Like previously stated, I don't want doctors to rush my death to save people, I like my life and they're going to have to wait in line, like patient terminal patients. Also, I am dubious on my prefered disposal after death, so don't really know if I want my organs going elsewhere, interupting my successful reuptake into the nitrogen cycle.
But one of my main problems is with who it goes to. This is the same reason I don't donate blood. I want to check out who I'm saving, so I don't waste a perfectly good kidney on a moron I'd rather see dead. Like that bruhaha in California, where the prisoner got preferencial donation, I don't a murderer getting my liver. I don't want an SUV driving soccer mom getting it either, or George Bush, or pretty much most of society. Maybe if the Dali Lama needed a heart I'd help 'im out.
Now if I got to know the possible recipriants before death, and liked them, then I wouldn't mind. Keeps my marrow from falling into the carpals of a serial killer, lawyer, or politician. Maybe small organ pacts, like me and my five freinds sign a binding contract, or some such.
Yes, I'm a non-charitable ass. I just dislike most people, and don't care about those who I don't know enough to literally give them part of myself.
I think the problem is seperating the wheat from the chaff. Their must be MILLIONS of indie bands in the U.S. alone, and only 10% of them are any good, but then you have the tastes of the listeners to contend with. Personally I have found many indie bands I like, but its not in my my genres.
And while the big music stuff has the same 10% ratio, it gets more exposure, so it's easier to come in contact with something you like. And while those big indie mp3 databases are very nice and all, I really don't want to listen to 50 bands, just to find one I can listen too. Too much hastle, I did it once when mp3.com didn't suck and after 3 days had a list of bands I liked, and only 2 of 'em sticked with me.
Stability is another problem with the idie scene. You never know if your indie band of choice will be there tomorrow, and if they leave they will not leave a body of recording that can be bought at your local used music store. I know that if a big industry band goes under I can hit up my local campus Zia Records and pick up their old stuff, but if the indie goes away, then your screwed, stuck with old Mp3's or Ogg's.
While I haven't bought a new CD since the last Tool CD came out, I also haven't discovered any American indie bands that I like, especially since most of them are styled as "sounds like..." If I wanted something that sounded like a band I like, I'd just buy their album.
I agree that uninstalling can be a task, but alot of that is the uninstall setups that other use. If you use a 3rd party install/uninstall program it really fixes most of that. At least it doesn't have the issue that 95/98 had were it couldn't delete recursive directories. XP seems smarter, not perfect, but smarter.
The reg is easily fixed, download RegCleaner from www.jv16.org, every once in a while do the fix command, then go through the app keys and delete obsolete keys. I clean my registry about once a month, or after I uninstall something big.
A lot of it has to do with the extra stuff, like finding all the remnant files, and doing an old DLL sweep to remove those. Really got to work for a good OS, every OS requires some savvy on the users part to remain nice, fast, and stable, except maybe OSX, but I don't know about that even.
Though I'll admit after swapping video/sound cards you really need to reformat, some of those drivers (especially old 3dfx ones) really stick around in odd places. And Windows is plagued with conflicts when you mobo has bad onboards (like ECS mobos).
Yes, Windows has inherent flaws (as do every other OS), and yes being that MS is the developer they lay on MS' doorstep. But it's up to the user to find the work-arounds. 60/40 sounds fair, 60% MS' fault, and 40% user error.
Every OS I've used extensively has had its own unique issues to cope with. To me *nix is as flawed as XP. OSX I have no clue about, but I'm sure it's there too.
Actually my old copy of Win98se probably only seriously crashed once a week, BSOD I mean. The only time it locked up was with hardware issue, and bad installs. The other crashes were due to my constant reg tweaking.
My copy of XP pro SP1 has only BSOD'd once, and that was because I tried to install a scanner driver for 2k, and it BSOD'd, and then I retried twice and BSOD'd both time. Once I had explorer.exe crash. B ut other than that it is completely free of nasty crash bugs, just some slow downs. Very stable.
Most crashes in windows is because of people doing stupid stuff, or installing bad things, they are not completely inherent in the OS. I'd say the Windows/Linux stabilty comparisons are not really that different, considering that Linux has a more knowledgable and tech savvy user-base than windows, the choice of Ma and Pa Average. And beleive me, Ma and Pa average could probably do something stupid enough to screw up any OS, and with Linux their screw-ups would be WORSE.
Wasn't McCarthyism a police state? J. Edgar Hoover collect information on all sorts of "unamerican" activities? America HAS had a police state, and we're getting another one.
I do use some cookie, I have firebird and IE prompt though, then go clean 'em up with my weekly cleaning, except the cookies I use day to day.
/. because I don't like being an AC, I allow Amazon, I allow my schools cookies, and a couple forums cookies because I get something out of it, easy access. But deny everything else, especially if they are ad.* cookies. Just out of principle.
Mostly I do this to prevent usage tracking. Also I can totally see some people refusing cookies all together because they figure that it is THEIR computer and THEY should have complete control about what is put on it. It's a territorial type thing. Don't want doubleclick pissing on your terf.
I find most sites are quite irresponsible with cookies, and mostly use them to tell how many times I have visited, and the cookies have no actual benefit for me. I allow
And with no love of knowledge instilled during youth, how many would go enrich themselves. I figure most of them will quit education when they are economically viable, and thus think that their feild is the only feild that matters (like most geneticists today), and that their ideology is the only ideology.
Speciallization is selective ignorance. Speciallization leads to intellectual arrogance.
Also, judging from the amount of career jumps that an average person makes, I'd bet that a broadbased education is safer than just going for one feild, without any other experience. Most of my post-college freinds started college majoring in one thing, and then switched to something they liked much better that they wouldn't have had contact with if it wasn't for the broad nature of universities. Hell, I've switched my course of education/future plans twice now, and am glad that I have. Wanted to go into IT, then realized that it is a souless profession (to me, couldn't do with the lack of personal interaction, and interfacing with a machine all day, and IT people have a signifigant boon of mental illness late in their careers for these reasons. Not making a judgment on others taste, mind) Then switched to psychology with a heavy emphasis on philosophy, then realized that it was equally souless, and moved on to wildlife biology. Each time I took a signifigant pay cut, but probably increased my quality of life. Much rather live in a studio apartment doing what I love, than having a 12 bedroom house and a Jag doing what I hate. Money isn't everything, money is pretty inconsiquencial compared to happyness, and doing what you love.
Looking at the last two articles on /.'s home, I'm scared. /. is devolving into an art journal, poems have sex, and street theature. Hmm.... SCO isn't suing anyone new, right? No new RIAA conflicts? Lets cover ART!
Though I personally dig this in a Discordian kind of way, very op mindf*ck.
Supreme court does have that right in an offhanded way, it can interpret the constitution in any way it pleases.
Cobralingus, by the british sci-fi author jeff noon (www.cobralingus.com) Text mutation engine, he wrote a whole book with it called Needle in the Groove, and parts of his collection of short stories Pixel Juice are written with it. Kinda fun to play with, but like the page posted it mostly constructs nonsense.
Correction accepted and noted.
I was 90% right at least.
Great, I really want the world run by a bunch of people lacking a sense of scope. I think that every one needs a well rounded education before specializing, so you have a sense of where your feild fits, and the greater impact it has. People going to school just for a future pay check make me very depressed, they are going to lead to our downfall for their lack of perspective and ethics.
And really it isn't a rich kid luxury, I've been attending college level classed for over 5 years now, and am now getting ready to attend my second university, after another breif stint in the Maricopa Community College system. Oh, and I'm dirt poor, living in a one bedroom apartment in the ghetto, working a job much under my skill level. But to me, being well rounded is essencial, I'd much rather be intelligent, than programmed. I'd much rather 'waste my time' on all those 'useless' philosophy courses than go to school for 2 years so I can be some nasty proffesional, blind of everything except on specific feild.
Knowledge needs context.
First off, like lecturers themselves the webpage approach can be a double edged sword. I took an enviromental biology class that was 1/3 online, 1/3 lecture, and 1/3 lab. Worked out very well, with some pretty intense discussion (mostly OT) on the online forums, and was a good place to turn in homework, being that you had until 11:59pm Saturday night to turn in assignments. Much drunken fumbling with the Mozilla mail client usually ensued at 11:30.
But then I also took a human anatomy and physiology class that was 50% lecture and had its labs online. I really missed alot of stuff, since a Java or Flash cadavre isn't quite as good as the real thing. Kind of defeated the purpose of a lab, though i'm sure it saved the school some money. On the same note, this school also taught Marine Biology completely online, which to me is the silliest thing in the world. Life sciences are meant to be hands on.
But some students also cannot learn from pure text. I took a lit mythology class that was completely written lecture notes, with the real life lecture being merely a fill in the blank session, and discussion of the notes. I picked up what was discussed, but not the main body of the class. I can't learn from pure text, I need the damn lecture. But for some student it could be nice, I'm sure, just not all.
Moving on to your first point. the lecture has been around since the Greeks, and has worked damn well for over 2000 years, so I don't see whats wrong with it. For certain subjects I can see deviating from the tried and true format, like in technological or information sciences, but for the most part I have to go with the old saying, "If it ain't broke don't fix it"
Also by increasing the technological component in learning we risk catering to those with a short attention span, which was given to them by the media and the psychological based teaching methods developed during the 60's onwards. I really see no reason to make these people feel that their twitching ability should be welcomed in an educational enviroment. University isn't high school, university should be hard to seperate the dross. But this is a whole 'nother rant, that I will drop now for the fear of -1 flamebait.