Did anyone bother to check it out? I don't see any indication Surf Control is censoring it -- they don't even have it logged!
I typed in the url for the site mentioned (more precisely, I copied and pasted the link in the story for Liberty Forum from the/. page into the categorization/test page at SurfControl and it didn't even recognize the site name.
How can they filter it if it isn't in their database and catagorized?
You're right. All these terrible things make any interest in computers or anything else in normal life worthless.
Why don't we all just go sit in a corner and cry -- would that make you happy?
Life goes on. It always has. It always will. While this may seem unimportant to you, in the overall picture of humanity, we too close to the situation to know what effect (if any) the WTC attack or Xandros Linux will have on the future. The world can stop everything and do nothing but respond to tragedy, or we can keep going with life and keep building a world that eventually has a chance of healing these wounds.
In the meantime, I worked with many social workers and psychologists when I taught emotionally disturbed teens. Would you like me to recommend someone you could start seeing regularly?
Actually, JMS did not write each season like the last. There are definate cliff hangers at the end of season 1 and 3. Season 2's last ep (when we see the Vorlon) did not tie up the series. JMS had said many times that B5 was a 5 year series and planned it that way from the beginning. When Warner started breaking up PTEN, he didn't know if there'd be a season 5, so he made sure it would end well at the end of season 4. The last ep, Sleeing in Light, was filmed at the end of S4, just in case, but it was the one he always planned as the last ep.
I've noticed there are several types of networks. There's the type that just runs programs to make bucks. There's nothing wrong that -- businesses are created to make money and so people can make a living. Then there's the networks that are run by people that like what they're doing. For example, TVLand. Maybe I'm wrong, but when one of the VPs of a network writes books about the types of shows his network airs, I figure he's into the product. Oxygen seems similar -- it's focused on women and it seems like the people involved with the network are in tune with what they show. This type of network has an integrated and obvious image that viewers can identify with -- they will often leave their TV on that network or go to it first before checking other networks.
USA, on the other hand, to me, never seemed to be about anything but profit. They seemed to pick shows only for ratings, not because the people running the network were interested in a particular type of show or because there was any emotional motivation -- all they ever seemed to care about was profit. This kind of network, at least to me, always seemed to have no other identity or image other than "Aren't we cool with these cool shows? We've got the top ten," or something like that.
While Sci-Fi has an image, it has seemed to me for a long time that the network was about money, and nothing else. That the people behind it were doing SF, but that the endeavor was more about money than the subject matter. I really liked The Invisible Man -- for once there was a show about an invisible man that wasn't contrived -- it didn't always boil down to "We're in trouble and the only thing that can save us is invisibility." It actually had interesting characters and a complex world. I understand it was making the numbers in the ratings, but still canned.
I stopped watching Sci-Fi years ago EXCEPT for shows I could record and watch later. I got fed up with 4 minute commercial breaks. I was frustrated with watching Hercules or Xena re-runs (I didn't watch them when they were first aired). Remember, both shows have an overall story arc and the characters change. Sci-Fi started with airing episodes in reverse order and, later, when they were airing the shows daily, they'd cut them off at the end of the quarter when their schedule changed -- without reaching the series end. When they started re-airing the shows, I started watching again and -- guess what? They cut them off before the end of the series and at the end of the quarter again!
If these guys (the Sci-Fi staff) were running NBC in the late 1960s, let's face it, Star Trek would have been killed after 2 seasons (I know -- with the 3rd season, that may have been a blessing!). Look at other classics -- not SF, but Dick Van Dyke was cancelled after year 1, then the producers talked them into keeping the series and it had a great 5 year run overall and was as profitable as a TV show can be. Decisions like this can not always be made based on the numbers, but at Sci-Fi, it is, has been, and always will be about nothing but the numbers.
I stopped watching Sci-Fi several years ago. A friend talked me into I-Man, and let me see his tapes of the show each week. I do watch Stargate, but when that ends, I won't bother with Sci-Fi. I'm tired of 4 minute commercial breaks. I'm tired of getting into a show and seeing the re-runs cut short. I'm tired of getting into a show and seeing it cancelled before it's ready to go.
USA networks doesn't care about any show. All they care about is the bottom line. I've seen episodes of Farscape and find it impressive, but I'll be damned if I get involved with any more shows on Sci-Fi. It's clear to me they dont' give a tinker's dam about the viewers/fans. Only the buck.
Farscape will be much better off if it can move to Showtime and be the 3rd show for Sci-Fridays.
"I don't think BetaMAX and the 3/4 inch Beta professional format are the same thing. I can't believe they would kill all beta. Virtually ALL professional taping is done with Beta"
That was true, but as a video professional, I don't know anyone using Beta now. Everyone's gone to digital. Six or seven years ago, it was true, though
Wow! I can't believe the number of logical flaws in your comment!
1) "Your opinions are flawed." Opinions, by their very nature, cannot be flawed. Facts can be, but not opinions.
2) "You can't possibly be objective." And you, as a homeschooled student, can? Why can you be objective and I can't? (FYI, I worked for a year helping people in homeschooling situations. I also am NO LONGER a teacher (I run my own business), I have nothing to do with the eductional system, and I have stated in this discussion that I left teaching, in part, due to problems with ethical attitudes of adminstrators in public schools).
3) "I was home schooled...Nothing dysfuncitonal." And your source/proof that there's nothing dysfunctional? I'm not arguing with you, but an individual is not able to decide if he or she is functional (unless fully trained in psychology or medicine, and even then, there are many exceptions.) Every student I taught in residential treatment told me how they were really functional and everyone else was messed up.
4) "since you have no scientific basis for your assumptions." And your scientific basis is....what? That you feel you're okay? Send me a letter signed by a psychologist who's been working with you for a full year, and at that point we have some scientific basis supporting your comments. While I have not done a study, I stated that my comments were in regard to MY experience. I worked with a number of home schooled students (a fair estimate is well over 50, perhaps closer to 100). I'm stating what I've seen in those students.
Maybe you did turn out okay. But that does not prove it works as a whole. For example some honorable men were in Hitler's staff. That does not mean all men in his staff were honorable. One good egg does not prove the entire bunch is not rotton.
It may be a smoke screen from some people. On the other hand, as I said, I speak from MY experience, from what I have SEEN.
You say if you had gone to public school you would have "probably been ostracized." I never said someone should go to public school (I am a strong advocate of vouchers and private school). On the other hand, how would you know, since the chance was not taken? You can only guess.
So the students came to you for help. Did they see you as a friend, or a resource? You give examples of the latter, but not the former.
I don't want to insult any branch of the armed services, but for a few years I taught in a residential treatment program for adolescents. The majority of the students with severe problems had parents in the military. While these parents were able to work and live in a regimented (and to some extent artifically designed) envornment of the armed services, they had serious problems in interacting with their families on an emotional level.
Does that mean ALL military people have no clue how to raise their children? No, it doesn't. (I, myself, am raised by an Navy CPO -- one who made CPO while he was well under 30.) I am not about to generalize and say all military parents are dysfunctional. On the other hand, talking about "all the bad influences in public schools" and calling schools a "state-run breeding ground for liberalism" are emotionally loaded statements that come more from anger than from truth. I have worked in schools where the few Democrats in schools were ostracized. (In my experience, most of the public school teachers I worked with were Republicans and made that known around election time every year. -- Only the teachers in residential treatment and in schools in disadvantaged areas tend to be at all liberal.) (Oh, and schools are not state run -- each area, at least in VA, where Hamtpon Roads is, has control over their own system and, other than SOLs, has strong control over their own system. If you don't like what's going on, VOTE.)
In my experience, when I see such phrases as "breeding ground for liberalism," I've found that they cannot be logically supported. That may not be true, but as a parent, it is up to you to influence your children if you feel they have to be brought up to agree with your own point of view. With this in mind, I would suggest reading "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg" by Mark Twain. It's about a town that makes sure the children never face temptation and do not interact with people they don't agree with. In the end, the town's people don't know how to deal with temptation because they have not faced it.
One last comment, on a personal note. I've heard a lot of people use the word "liberal" or "liberalism" as an attack on many things. I have never heard anyone who used that word explain, in a logical manner, what it is that is liberal, or what is wrong. Personally, I think it's a catch word used to denigrate people with whom one does not agree or does not understand. It's become a word used in witch hunts, just like McCarthy used the word Communist. At least that's my person, OT comment and reaction to schools being a "state-run breeding ground for liberalism."
And there's a good reason it worked for you -- the academic and the pedantic was balanced with experience and common sense. Few homeschooling parents (that I've worked with or talked with) do that. Getting a job was one of the best things (imho) you could have done. Sticking it out and adapting to the conditions was another.
Privacy isn't the issue. Keeping to one's self is not the issue. That is an entirely different issue from not being able to interact with people when needed. I'm tutoring a friend who is going for an MBA now (helping her with the math and stats classes). A large part of her assignment is working with a group on tasks. A large part of many jobs requires working with people, getting along with them, and giving them a reason to respect you and your work so your contributions are accepted. Obviously you have learned to do that. Again, my experience is that many homeschooled students do not develop these skills to an effective level. (Unless, as I said, they are heavily socialized.)
One little tip: Church is a good place for interaction and a good place for interpersonal support; however, most people active in any one church tend to have similar points of view (for example I'm a Quaker and almost all Quakers I know have similar outlooks to my own and we tend to interact in certain ways, but the way we interact is NOT the way I interact with many other people). People that have common views like that tend to interact differently than they do with groups of people without the same background and views. It's important to include a WIDE variety of types of social interaction.
When I taught high school, one time I even taught statistics. And I also showed students how the data could be taken and used to produce whatever effects one desired. I also taught to consider the source. For example, in the studies you mention (but you don't give any examples...), who did the survey? Was it a home schooling association?
I'm speaking from experience. Not just experience as a student, but experience as a teacher. That includes years of study and experience and learning how people learn, why some people learn in different styles, and what conditions are best for different students in their own learning environment.
I notice you don't cite experience (other than as a student -- an my experience is taht students have no idea how much goes on behind the scenes and what teachers learn and study to facilitate learning) or any special surveys, just vague generalities. As to changes in the elementary curriculum, you only mention different advocates coming into classsrooms (something which I NEVER saw in 10 years in the classroom).
As for amateurs producing superior academic results -- again, where and when? Who is doing it? Can you back up ANYTHING you've said? Yes, I've seen some amateurs do quite well. And in most cases, they're working in bubbles. They aren't working with a school where they have 4 or more classes of 20-30 students in a classroom per grade (which means usually from 500-720 students in an elementary school). While small groups is great, and working in a bubble away from reality is a good condition to work in, I have yet to see amateurs develop systems that work with the major "mass" of students public schools have the responsibility to educate.
I quit teaching for 2 reasons: 1) I was burned out (Special Ed does that to teachers), and 2) I could not, in good conscience, support or participate in the public school system. I am not defending the public school system. I am, however, pointing out that just being a student does not qualify one as an expert in education or schools (anymore than going to a doctor makes one an expert in physiology or medicine, or going to a psychologist makes one an expert in depression or other mental/emotional situations, or running Word on one's computer makes one an expert in programming and designing a user interface). I'm also pointint out that I'm speaking from experince from what I've seen in 10 years in the classroom. I'm not making vague statements or talking about people doing studies without saying who did the study, or just making comments to denigrate something without backing them up.
As a former special ed teacher (in elementary, but also in high school for a while), I'd first suggest you ask yourself why you want to homeschool. I've worked with a number of homeschooled students. While I find that, in many cases, they are well educated, that does not make up for the social issues I see almost all of these students develop. Homeschooled students simply do not get the myriad of opportunities to interact with peers and authority figures that they would in school. In one school the valedictorian had been homeschooled for most of his life. When he graduated, he was not emotionally ready for college, and would not have been able to handle making all the personal decisions living away from home requires. He did not know how to interact wit hthe other students who frequently laughed at his attempts to "fit in." Now that I'm in the business world, I see he is also not someone I would want to hire. While homeschooling may have helped him academically, his social skills were so poor, I could not see him interacting well with other employees or working with a team in a beneficial way. He simply did not have the experience at interacting and working with people.
While I have seen some homeschooled students do quite well, the majority I've seen (both in and out of special ed) are too much like the student I described above to be a coincidence. The parents are so thrilled Junior is thinking like them and acting the way he's been told to act, they don't see this. The few students that did well had EXTENSIVE social activities (I mean way more than non-homeschooled students had), such as playing on a soccer team AND acting in community plays AND ballet going on all at once -- which often would also lead to burnout.
On the other hand, I have another point to help. Schools go through textbook adoption in cycles. For elementary, one year they're working on Language Arts, then Math, then Science, etc. See if you can work with other parents in the area that want to homeschool. As a group go to school districts in the general area and see if you can obtain used copies of books they're discarding when they adopt new books. Do this with private schools as well.
The curriculum is not as set as the question makes it sound -- there are constant changes in elementary education (the very fact that statement was in the question leads me to ask if the person who asked the question knows enough about learning and what teachers are actually doing when they teach to be an effective teacher -- reading, for example, is not an easy subject to teach effectively). I only taught for 10 years, but the way reading and language arts was taught in that time changed enough so I would not have wanted to use textbooks available at the beginning of that time 10 years later.
I'm just curious -- does the USB port put out a strong enough signal to go 20 or 30 feet or more without some kind of booster/amp? And how about the device? Especially if it does not have its own power source.
I remember trying to extend serial cables and keyboard cables on some computers in the past and it didn't work simply because there wasn't a strong enough signal.
I know it's kind of zen, but it's working for us. It's the idea of using an opponent's strength against itself. While it seems off topic, or something form a completely different direction, think about when the movie studios do well. They're having a great summer this year, but the past few summers they were worried about why they weren't making boffo bucks. Why? Because during a recession people ALWAYS want to be entertained.
I started by wanting to create a digital film company (I have a lot of experience writing scripts and wanted to produce them). I haven't done any programming in over 10 years (the last programming I did was on an Apple//e in 65C02 assembler when the//e was still used in mnay businesses!). An opportunity popped up where a local business man who deals with people in financial trouble. I dropped the DV film business plan immediately, took a week to learn perl, and told him I could provide him with the information he wanted.
I put a dream on hold because I realized the business this person is in BLOSSOMS in a recession. And now a few of us are providing data for him. He's backing us to market this service to people thoroughout state and we've already contacted people he knows in nearby cities. Next week we will be rolling out version 1.0 and beginning to deliver our service to businesses nearby, but not near enough to be competing with our initial contact.
This particular business has two STRONG advantages over many other businesses: 1) It's based on providing services for companies and people that do well during a recession, and 2) We aren't selling the program, we're providing a service, so instead of being paid 1 time for a program, we're paid monthly for our services. (Like the way M$ wants to move from selling Windoze once to making it a subscription based service.)
There've been a few bumps -- including the fact that the head programmer (me) hasn't programmed in over a decade. I think that, in the long run, has helped, since we haven't been "boxed in" by preconceived notions or software business experience. Instead of deciding what types of programs to supply, or analyzing a market, I listened. I did not jump until I saw something that was a long term demand. I also made sure the service I was providing would basically not be effected by recessions (and, in fact, business is better BECAUSE of the recession).
I have to add I also learned from on of the local big companies. In Richmond (VA), Philip Morris is a huge employer. When a recession comes, people may not pay the rent, but they'll shell out bucks for smokes. While it is possible to take advantage of the trends of a good economy and provide luxeries, it's important to make sure your company's base services are not dot-com flashes, but something that meets basic needs that people will pay for, even if there is a recession or depression.
(BTW, based on our current client list and the people asking to subscribe, we expect to be profitable within 6 months.)
By source, I don't mean News.com, I mean the analyst with IDC (Gillen). I don't keep up with think tanks and analysts -- it seems that no matter what they use to support their views, it still just boils down to one opinion which could be disproven using different figures -- so I don't know anything about IDC. It seems to me, though, that the analyst knows NOTHING about the nature of OSS and how OSS companies make money. It seems to Gillen to be big news that Redhat charges for some services on a per server basis and that they do not make some higher end products (like the server install) available for download.
I question the value of the entire study, simply because it seems like another economist is trying to understand OSS software using the commercial/exploit the consumer model. I think this study was done by someone who just doesn't "get" OSS.
I don't know. Whenever I look at my clock, it's not 11:11, but 11:38. It happens almost every day, so I was thinking of just making a label "THX" and sticking it up before the 1138....
(Gee, I hope that doesn't mean I'll end up wearing a white jumpsuit, shaving my head, and living underground.)
A number of people have mentioned the idea of disconnecting the current CD player, but I think they're overlooking a potentially serious legal problem (or several legal problems). 1) The store probably has a contract with the content provider. This contract may go so far as to state that the store has agreed to play ONLY music from the content providor and playing other music voids the deal or incurs heavy fines. 2) Any contract with the content provider likely includes fees for rights to the music supplied and means the content provider has taken care of this sticky legal situation. I'm not sure, but I think there is a legal problem if the employees start playing other ASCAP or BMI (or other organizations) music in a place of business. I've never heard of a company being fined or sued for something like this, but a jilted content provider may be eager to report a former customer to ASCAP or such for licensing violations because they are playing the music in a public place of business.
I wonder if the people designing this system are aware that lesbians (and male homosexuals, but mostly lesbians) use a six color rainbow as a symbol of theirs and use the word "Rainbow" frequently as a symbol as well?
I don't think it would matter to most of us, but I wonder if they would have still picked this as a project name if then new. (Or perhaps someone did this on purpose?)
Why Did He Dodge the Sexuality Questions
on
Piers Anthony Unbound
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· Score: 1, Interesting
I read the first 5 Xanth novels and Phase trilogy (when I read it, that was all he had of both -- I read Phase as it was published) in college. Naturally my memory of his books is tainted by my then (barely) post-adolescent view of sexuality, so I don't remember much of any sexual scenes standing out.
What does bother me, though, are two things:
1) There were at least 2 well thought out questions about sexuality, where the posters cited specific scenes and situations. These weren't just groundless charges. In the majority of his responses to these questions, PA justified himself, but spent a good part of his answers attacking the questioner. While he did deal with the scenes in Space Tyrant, he glossed over or ignored many of the situations the questioners cited. In other words, he justified his position, instead of dealing directly with the issues (making women sex objects, and dealing with pedophilia). The strength of emotions that appear in his repsonses indicate, to me, that these are hot topics to him, and the rest of his answers to these questions seem more an attempt to avoid or deny the issue, or to redirect any criticism back on the questioner (which is a standard tactic used in any manipulative relationship). I think PA dodged this issues and this, in itself, is an indication that these are issues where he has a low level of self-awareness.
2) I can't believe he was able to snow the/. crowd so easily on these issues -- nobody has confronted him on this dance around the actual issue of the question.
Otherwise, I have to say it was an interesting interview and it is something I'm glad I took time to read. (I'd take time to read his books, but after the 4th or 5th Xanth and the Adept/Phase trilogy, I figured I'd read all his books and he was just re-writing them and re-publishing them under different names.)
Actually, I remember reading that Burma also uses the old non-metric system. Of course, that info could be out of date, but I read it in curriculum material for classes I was teaching. Although I don't remember the source, I remember thinking at the time that it was in a source published by a company with a good reputation for clear and accurate materials.
I don't know when the picture was taken (someone here said 1993), but I've had that same picture in use on my desktop as wall paper from time to time since within a year after I switched from Amiga to Wintel (which was about 1996 or 1997) an I've still been using it since I switche to Linux. So I know, from personal experience that pic is at least 5 years old (and I mean literally that pic -- I got it from Views of the Solar System in 1996 when I was researching a project for a teaching seminar) (sorry I don't remember the url for Views of the Solar System, but it's easy to find in Google or Yahoo).
I don't know whether they (the Lindows people) specifically said they had polled/. or not. I know I received e-mail from them asking to take a poll.
I think there is a fundamental problem here. It does not matter what/. readers think of Lindows. This is an OS intended for people with a large base of Win32 apps who want to stop using Windoze. It's not intended for users of Linux/BSD/Unix varients.
I've read many comments and articles here on Lindows and, while a few actually catch this, most people on/. forget that while this group is highly technically oriented, many people use a computer as a tool to do other work. For such people, Lindows may be a Very Good Thing.
The first criticism I usually see in any Lindows discussion here is the comment that it's stupid to run any system as root. That is true for a Linux system, but this comment itself shows the prejudice many of us have that is so ingrained we don't see it -- we are looking at it only from one point of view -- that of the techinically oriented. This comment in itself shows we are fogetting Lindows is emulating a system where most people don't even log in -- where anybody who turns on the computer has the equivalent of root access.
It doesn't matter what we think. Lindows is not aimed at us. On the other hand, Lindows just may be the thing that breaks the monopoly open and makes it easier for other operating systems to find a larger piece of the market share.
And more market share is a good thing (unless you're a Linux user who is a bit of a snob and wants to be using an OS not many people overall use because it allows you to be a techie snob/snot and look down your nose at others who may be very intelligent, but not knowledgable in the same areas you are).
Isn't that system limited to Euro systems? I know I've looked into a settop box for a DVR with schedule abilities, but I can't find anything out there that can get channel listings for the US market. Other than a program to download US cable/sat market listings and act as a timer for a DVR/PVR, everything else seems to be out there and in open source for Linux -- IR projects for remote control and automatic control of your cable/sat box from the computer, DVD players, and, of course, MP3 and other audio programs if you want it to handle your music collection as well.
I've seen this system and one or two others, but nothing to do scheduling/program listings for US.
I swore I'd never get a PDA, cell phone, or any portable tech, but my best friend got an iPaq through work, so she gave me her old Palm v. I found Weasal, a reader that co-operates with Linux host programs, including a program that lets you make compressed e-books out of standard text files.
Right now I'm reading The Prince and the Pauper, and I've got over a dozen books lined up for download to my PDA for reading. I went by Project Gutenburg and downloaded a ton of classics (including Sherlock Holmes, Beowulf, a wide selection of Twain, Shakespeare, and Moliere). All of these are not only classics, but a lot of them have an element of fantasy to them as well (like Connecticut Yankee or MacBeth). It seems to me anyone who loves sci-fi or fantasy and has half a brain would be interested in the roots of fantasy, which include Shakespeare (MacBeth, The Tempest, Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream), and books like Connecticut Yankee. Beowulf is certainly one of the first true action/adventure works, and certainly much more engrossing than a high-budget flick with "Ahhnold". As for plays by Moliere -- he's just downright funny. There's also a lot to be said for Alexendre Dumas and books like The Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers.
I work for a small IT firm in Virginia. The boss knew most of the employees were planning to see either a midnight show or one of the early shows that day, so he took a lead from an IT firm in L.A. (from what they did for Episode I), declared the day St. Lucas Day, and gave everyone in the firm a paid day off. We all went to see an early showing together. Aside from us, there were only 5-10 other people in the theater for that showing (this is in Richmond, VA).
No -- Weak faith feels threatened. Faith that is not based on a literal interpertation of a particular faith's scriptures (such as the Bible) can often work hand in hand with science.
You are right that the public can often not tell the difference and that many religions villify science.
I keep remembering "The Martian Chronicles" and the line someone said about the Martian's had integraded science, religion, art, and culture. There was no need for any to be mutually exclusive. I've found in my life my faith and my interest in science go hand in hand. The more I learn about the workings of this universe through science, the more I wonder and marvel at the God/Goddess I believe in has created.
Slashdot Mirror
Odd.
/.
I cut and pasted the actual link from
Do you think it might have to do with where you access the site from?
I've got no idea why, but when I pasted it in, I got a "not in our list" answer.
Anybody else get the same?
Did anyone bother to check it out? I don't see any indication Surf Control is censoring it -- they don't even have it logged!
/. page into the categorization/test page at SurfControl and it didn't even recognize the site name.
I typed in the url for the site mentioned (more precisely, I copied and pasted the link in the story for Liberty Forum from the
How can they filter it if it isn't in their database and catagorized?
You're right. All these terrible things make any interest in computers or anything else in normal life worthless.
Why don't we all just go sit in a corner and cry -- would that make you happy?
Life goes on. It always has. It always will. While this may seem unimportant to you, in the overall picture of humanity, we too close to the situation to know what effect (if any) the WTC attack or Xandros Linux will have on the future. The world can stop everything and do nothing but respond to tragedy, or we can keep going with life and keep building a world that eventually has a chance of healing these wounds.
In the meantime, I worked with many social workers and psychologists when I taught emotionally disturbed teens. Would you like me to recommend someone you could start seeing regularly?
Actually, JMS did not write each season like the last. There are definate cliff hangers at the end of season 1 and 3. Season 2's last ep (when we see the Vorlon) did not tie up the series. JMS had said many times that B5 was a 5 year series and planned it that way from the beginning. When Warner started breaking up PTEN, he didn't know if there'd be a season 5, so he made sure it would end well at the end of season 4. The last ep, Sleeing in Light, was filmed at the end of S4, just in case, but it was the one he always planned as the last ep.
I've noticed there are several types of networks. There's the type that just runs programs to make bucks. There's nothing wrong that -- businesses are created to make money and so people can make a living. Then there's the networks that are run by people that like what they're doing. For example, TVLand. Maybe I'm wrong, but when one of the VPs of a network writes books about the types of shows his network airs, I figure he's into the product. Oxygen seems similar -- it's focused on women and it seems like the people involved with the network are in tune with what they show. This type of network has an integrated and obvious image that viewers can identify with -- they will often leave their TV on that network or go to it first before checking other networks.
USA, on the other hand, to me, never seemed to be about anything but profit. They seemed to pick shows only for ratings, not because the people running the network were interested in a particular type of show or because there was any emotional motivation -- all they ever seemed to care about was profit. This kind of network, at least to me, always seemed to have no other identity or image other than "Aren't we cool with these cool shows? We've got the top ten," or something like that.
While Sci-Fi has an image, it has seemed to me for a long time that the network was about money, and nothing else. That the people behind it were doing SF, but that the endeavor was more about money than the subject matter. I really liked The Invisible Man -- for once there was a show about an invisible man that wasn't contrived -- it didn't always boil down to "We're in trouble and the only thing that can save us is invisibility." It actually had interesting characters and a complex world. I understand it was making the numbers in the ratings, but still canned.
I stopped watching Sci-Fi years ago EXCEPT for shows I could record and watch later. I got fed up with 4 minute commercial breaks. I was frustrated with watching Hercules or Xena re-runs (I didn't watch them when they were first aired). Remember, both shows have an overall story arc and the characters change. Sci-Fi started with airing episodes in reverse order and, later, when they were airing the shows daily, they'd cut them off at the end of the quarter when their schedule changed -- without reaching the series end. When they started re-airing the shows, I started watching again and -- guess what? They cut them off before the end of the series and at the end of the quarter again!
If these guys (the Sci-Fi staff) were running NBC in the late 1960s, let's face it, Star Trek would have been killed after 2 seasons (I know -- with the 3rd season, that may have been a blessing!). Look at other classics -- not SF, but Dick Van Dyke was cancelled after year 1, then the producers talked them into keeping the series and it had a great 5 year run overall and was as profitable as a TV show can be. Decisions like this can not always be made based on the numbers, but at Sci-Fi, it is, has been, and always will be about nothing but the numbers.
I stopped watching Sci-Fi several years ago. A friend talked me into I-Man, and let me see his tapes of the show each week. I do watch Stargate, but when that ends, I won't bother with Sci-Fi. I'm tired of 4 minute commercial breaks. I'm tired of getting into a show and seeing the re-runs cut short. I'm tired of getting into a show and seeing it cancelled before it's ready to go.
USA networks doesn't care about any show. All they care about is the bottom line. I've seen episodes of Farscape and find it impressive, but I'll be damned if I get involved with any more shows on Sci-Fi. It's clear to me they dont' give a tinker's dam about the viewers/fans. Only the buck.
Farscape will be much better off if it can move to Showtime and be the 3rd show for Sci-Fridays.
"I don't think BetaMAX and the 3/4 inch Beta professional format are the same thing. I can't believe they would kill all beta. Virtually ALL professional taping is done with Beta"
That was true, but as a video professional, I don't know anyone using Beta now. Everyone's gone to digital. Six or seven years ago, it was true, though
Wow! I can't believe the number of logical flaws in your comment!
1) "Your opinions are flawed." Opinions, by their very nature, cannot be flawed. Facts can be, but not opinions.
2) "You can't possibly be objective." And you, as a homeschooled student, can? Why can you be objective and I can't? (FYI, I worked for a year helping people in homeschooling situations. I also am NO LONGER a teacher (I run my own business), I have nothing to do with the eductional system, and I have stated in this discussion that I left teaching, in part, due to problems with ethical attitudes of adminstrators in public schools).
3) "I was home schooled...Nothing dysfuncitonal." And your source/proof that there's nothing dysfunctional? I'm not arguing with you, but an individual is not able to decide if he or she is functional (unless fully trained in psychology or medicine, and even then, there are many exceptions.) Every student I taught in residential treatment told me how they were really functional and everyone else was messed up.
4) "since you have no scientific basis for your assumptions." And your scientific basis is....what? That you feel you're okay? Send me a letter signed by a psychologist who's been working with you for a full year, and at that point we have some scientific basis supporting your comments. While I have not done a study, I stated that my comments were in regard to MY experience. I worked with a number of home schooled students (a fair estimate is well over 50, perhaps closer to 100). I'm stating what I've seen in those students.
Maybe you did turn out okay. But that does not prove it works as a whole. For example some honorable men were in Hitler's staff. That does not mean all men in his staff were honorable. One good egg does not prove the entire bunch is not rotton.
It may be a smoke screen from some people. On the other hand, as I said, I speak from MY experience, from what I have SEEN.
You say if you had gone to public school you would have "probably been ostracized." I never said someone should go to public school (I am a strong advocate of vouchers and private school). On the other hand, how would you know, since the chance was not taken? You can only guess.
So the students came to you for help. Did they see you as a friend, or a resource? You give examples of the latter, but not the former.
I don't want to insult any branch of the armed services, but for a few years I taught in a residential treatment program for adolescents. The majority of the students with severe problems had parents in the military. While these parents were able to work and live in a regimented (and to some extent artifically designed) envornment of the armed services, they had serious problems in interacting with their families on an emotional level.
Does that mean ALL military people have no clue how to raise their children? No, it doesn't. (I, myself, am raised by an Navy CPO -- one who made CPO while he was well under 30.) I am not about to generalize and say all military parents are dysfunctional. On the other hand, talking about "all the bad influences in public schools" and calling schools a "state-run breeding ground for liberalism" are emotionally loaded statements that come more from anger than from truth. I have worked in schools where the few Democrats in schools were ostracized. (In my experience, most of the public school teachers I worked with were Republicans and made that known around election time every year. -- Only the teachers in residential treatment and in schools in disadvantaged areas tend to be at all liberal.) (Oh, and schools are not state run -- each area, at least in VA, where Hamtpon Roads is, has control over their own system and, other than SOLs, has strong control over their own system. If you don't like what's going on, VOTE.)
In my experience, when I see such phrases as "breeding ground for liberalism," I've found that they cannot be logically supported. That may not be true, but as a parent, it is up to you to influence your children if you feel they have to be brought up to agree with your own point of view. With this in mind, I would suggest reading "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg" by Mark Twain. It's about a town that makes sure the children never face temptation and do not interact with people they don't agree with. In the end, the town's people don't know how to deal with temptation because they have not faced it.
One last comment, on a personal note. I've heard a lot of people use the word "liberal" or "liberalism" as an attack on many things. I have never heard anyone who used that word explain, in a logical manner, what it is that is liberal, or what is wrong. Personally, I think it's a catch word used to denigrate people with whom one does not agree or does not understand. It's become a word used in witch hunts, just like McCarthy used the word Communist. At least that's my person, OT comment and reaction to schools being a "state-run breeding ground for liberalism."
And there's a good reason it worked for you -- the academic and the pedantic was balanced with experience and common sense. Few homeschooling parents (that I've worked with or talked with) do that. Getting a job was one of the best things (imho) you could have done. Sticking it out and adapting to the conditions was another.
Privacy isn't the issue. Keeping to one's self is not the issue. That is an entirely different issue from not being able to interact with people when needed. I'm tutoring a friend who is going for an MBA now (helping her with the math and stats classes). A large part of her assignment is working with a group on tasks. A large part of many jobs requires working with people, getting along with them, and giving them a reason to respect you and your work so your contributions are accepted. Obviously you have learned to do that. Again, my experience is that many homeschooled students do not develop these skills to an effective level. (Unless, as I said, they are heavily socialized.)
One little tip: Church is a good place for interaction and a good place for interpersonal support; however, most people active in any one church tend to have similar points of view (for example I'm a Quaker and almost all Quakers I know have similar outlooks to my own and we tend to interact in certain ways, but the way we interact is NOT the way I interact with many other people). People that have common views like that tend to interact differently than they do with groups of people without the same background and views. It's important to include a WIDE variety of types of social interaction.
When I taught high school, one time I even taught statistics. And I also showed students how the data could be taken and used to produce whatever effects one desired. I also taught to consider the source. For example, in the studies you mention (but you don't give any examples...), who did the survey? Was it a home schooling association?
I'm speaking from experience. Not just experience as a student, but experience as a teacher. That includes years of study and experience and learning how people learn, why some people learn in different styles, and what conditions are best for different students in their own learning environment.
I notice you don't cite experience (other than as a student -- an my experience is taht students have no idea how much goes on behind the scenes and what teachers learn and study to facilitate learning) or any special surveys, just vague generalities. As to changes in the elementary curriculum, you only mention different advocates coming into classsrooms (something which I NEVER saw in 10 years in the classroom).
As for amateurs producing superior academic results -- again, where and when? Who is doing it? Can you back up ANYTHING you've said? Yes, I've seen some amateurs do quite well. And in most cases, they're working in bubbles. They aren't working with a school where they have 4 or more classes of 20-30 students in a classroom per grade (which means usually from 500-720 students in an elementary school). While small groups is great, and working in a bubble away from reality is a good condition to work in, I have yet to see amateurs develop systems that work with the major "mass" of students public schools have the responsibility to educate.
I quit teaching for 2 reasons: 1) I was burned out (Special Ed does that to teachers), and 2) I could not, in good conscience, support or participate in the public school system. I am not defending the public school system. I am, however, pointing out that just being a student does not qualify one as an expert in education or schools (anymore than going to a doctor makes one an expert in physiology or medicine, or going to a psychologist makes one an expert in depression or other mental/emotional situations, or running Word on one's computer makes one an expert in programming and designing a user interface). I'm also pointint out that I'm speaking from experince from what I've seen in 10 years in the classroom. I'm not making vague statements or talking about people doing studies without saying who did the study, or just making comments to denigrate something without backing them up.
As a former special ed teacher (in elementary, but also in high school for a while), I'd first suggest you ask yourself why you want to homeschool. I've worked with a number of homeschooled students. While I find that, in many cases, they are well educated, that does not make up for the social issues I see almost all of these students develop. Homeschooled students simply do not get the myriad of opportunities to interact with peers and authority figures that they would in school. In one school the valedictorian had been homeschooled for most of his life. When he graduated, he was not emotionally ready for college, and would not have been able to handle making all the personal decisions living away from home requires. He did not know how to interact wit hthe other students who frequently laughed at his attempts to "fit in." Now that I'm in the business world, I see he is also not someone I would want to hire. While homeschooling may have helped him academically, his social skills were so poor, I could not see him interacting well with other employees or working with a team in a beneficial way. He simply did not have the experience at interacting and working with people.
While I have seen some homeschooled students do quite well, the majority I've seen (both in and out of special ed) are too much like the student I described above to be a coincidence. The parents are so thrilled Junior is thinking like them and acting the way he's been told to act, they don't see this. The few students that did well had EXTENSIVE social activities (I mean way more than non-homeschooled students had), such as playing on a soccer team AND acting in community plays AND ballet going on all at once -- which often would also lead to burnout.
On the other hand, I have another point to help. Schools go through textbook adoption in cycles. For elementary, one year they're working on Language Arts, then Math, then Science, etc. See if you can work with other parents in the area that want to homeschool. As a group go to school districts in the general area and see if you can obtain used copies of books they're discarding when they adopt new books. Do this with private schools as well.
The curriculum is not as set as the question makes it sound -- there are constant changes in elementary education (the very fact that statement was in the question leads me to ask if the person who asked the question knows enough about learning and what teachers are actually doing when they teach to be an effective teacher -- reading, for example, is not an easy subject to teach effectively). I only taught for 10 years, but the way reading and language arts was taught in that time changed enough so I would not have wanted to use textbooks available at the beginning of that time 10 years later.
I'm just curious -- does the USB port put out a strong enough signal to go 20 or 30 feet or more without some kind of booster/amp? And how about the device? Especially if it does not have its own power source.
I remember trying to extend serial cables and keyboard cables on some computers in the past and it didn't work simply because there wasn't a strong enough signal.
I know it's kind of zen, but it's working for us. It's the idea of using an opponent's strength against itself. While it seems off topic, or something form a completely different direction, think about when the movie studios do well. They're having a great summer this year, but the past few summers they were worried about why they weren't making boffo bucks. Why? Because during a recession people ALWAYS want to be entertained.
//e in 65C02 assembler when the //e was still used in mnay businesses!). An opportunity popped up where a local business man who deals with people in financial trouble. I dropped the DV film business plan immediately, took a week to learn perl, and told him I could provide him with the information he wanted.
I started by wanting to create a digital film company (I have a lot of experience writing scripts and wanted to produce them). I haven't done any programming in over 10 years (the last programming I did was on an Apple
I put a dream on hold because I realized the business this person is in BLOSSOMS in a recession. And now a few of us are providing data for him. He's backing us to market this service to people thoroughout state and we've already contacted people he knows in nearby cities. Next week we will be rolling out version 1.0 and beginning to deliver our service to businesses nearby, but not near enough to be competing with our initial contact.
This particular business has two STRONG advantages over many other businesses: 1) It's based on providing services for companies and people that do well during a recession, and 2) We aren't selling the program, we're providing a service, so instead of being paid 1 time for a program, we're paid monthly for our services. (Like the way M$ wants to move from selling Windoze once to making it a subscription based service.)
There've been a few bumps -- including the fact that the head programmer (me) hasn't programmed in over a decade. I think that, in the long run, has helped, since we haven't been "boxed in" by preconceived notions or software business experience. Instead of deciding what types of programs to supply, or analyzing a market, I listened. I did not jump until I saw something that was a long term demand. I also made sure the service I was providing would basically not be effected by recessions (and, in fact, business is better BECAUSE of the recession).
I have to add I also learned from on of the local big companies. In Richmond (VA), Philip Morris is a huge employer. When a recession comes, people may not pay the rent, but they'll shell out bucks for smokes. While it is possible to take advantage of the trends of a good economy and provide luxeries, it's important to make sure your company's base services are not dot-com flashes, but something that meets basic needs that people will pay for, even if there is a recession or depression.
(BTW, based on our current client list and the people asking to subscribe, we expect to be profitable within 6 months.)
By source, I don't mean News.com, I mean the analyst with IDC (Gillen). I don't keep up with think tanks and analysts -- it seems that no matter what they use to support their views, it still just boils down to one opinion which could be disproven using different figures -- so I don't know anything about IDC. It seems to me, though, that the analyst knows NOTHING about the nature of OSS and how OSS companies make money. It seems to Gillen to be big news that Redhat charges for some services on a per server basis and that they do not make some higher end products (like the server install) available for download.
I question the value of the entire study, simply because it seems like another economist is trying to understand OSS software using the commercial/exploit the consumer model. I think this study was done by someone who just doesn't "get" OSS.
I don't know. Whenever I look at my clock, it's not 11:11, but 11:38. It happens almost every day, so I was thinking of just making a label "THX" and sticking it up before the 1138....
(Gee, I hope that doesn't mean I'll end up wearing a white jumpsuit, shaving my head, and living underground.)
A number of people have mentioned the idea of disconnecting the current CD player, but I think they're overlooking a potentially serious legal problem (or several legal problems). 1) The store probably has a contract with the content provider. This contract may go so far as to state that the store has agreed to play ONLY music from the content providor and playing other music voids the deal or incurs heavy fines. 2) Any contract with the content provider likely includes fees for rights to the music supplied and means the content provider has taken care of this sticky legal situation. I'm not sure, but I think there is a legal problem if the employees start playing other ASCAP or BMI (or other organizations) music in a place of business. I've never heard of a company being fined or sued for something like this, but a jilted content provider may be eager to report a former customer to ASCAP or such for licensing violations because they are playing the music in a public place of business.
I wonder if the people designing this system are aware that lesbians (and male homosexuals, but mostly lesbians) use a six color rainbow as a symbol of theirs and use the word "Rainbow" frequently as a symbol as well?
I don't think it would matter to most of us, but I wonder if they would have still picked this as a project name if then new. (Or perhaps someone did this on purpose?)
I read the first 5 Xanth novels and Phase trilogy (when I read it, that was all he had of both -- I read Phase as it was published) in college. Naturally my memory of his books is tainted by my then (barely) post-adolescent view of sexuality, so I don't remember much of any sexual scenes standing out.
/. crowd so easily on these issues -- nobody has confronted him on this dance around the actual issue of the question.
What does bother me, though, are two things:
1) There were at least 2 well thought out questions about sexuality, where the posters cited specific scenes and situations. These weren't just groundless charges. In the majority of his responses to these questions, PA justified himself, but spent a good part of his answers attacking the questioner. While he did deal with the scenes in Space Tyrant, he glossed over or ignored many of the situations the questioners cited. In other words, he justified his position, instead of dealing directly with the issues (making women sex objects, and dealing with pedophilia). The strength of emotions that appear in his repsonses indicate, to me, that these are hot topics to him, and the rest of his answers to these questions seem more an attempt to avoid or deny the issue, or to redirect any criticism back on the questioner (which is a standard tactic used in any manipulative relationship). I think PA dodged this issues and this, in itself, is an indication that these are issues where he has a low level of self-awareness.
2) I can't believe he was able to snow the
Otherwise, I have to say it was an interesting interview and it is something I'm glad I took time to read. (I'd take time to read his books, but after the 4th or 5th Xanth and the Adept/Phase trilogy, I figured I'd read all his books and he was just re-writing them and re-publishing them under different names.)
Actually, I remember reading that Burma also uses the old non-metric system. Of course, that info could be out of date, but I read it in curriculum material for classes I was teaching. Although I don't remember the source, I remember thinking at the time that it was in a source published by a company with a good reputation for clear and accurate materials.
I don't know when the picture was taken (someone here said 1993), but I've had that same picture in use on my desktop as wall paper from time to time since within a year after I switched from Amiga to Wintel (which was about 1996 or 1997) an I've still been using it since I switche to Linux. So I know, from personal experience that pic is at least 5 years old (and I mean literally that pic -- I got it from Views of the Solar System in 1996 when I was researching a project for a teaching seminar) (sorry I don't remember the url for Views of the Solar System, but it's easy to find in Google or Yahoo).
I don't know whether they (the Lindows people) specifically said they had polled /. or not. I know I received e-mail from them asking to take a poll.
/. readers think of Lindows. This is an OS intended for people with a large base of Win32 apps who want to stop using Windoze. It's not intended for users of Linux/BSD/Unix varients.
/. forget that while this group is highly technically oriented, many people use a computer as a tool to do other work. For such people, Lindows may be a Very Good Thing.
I think there is a fundamental problem here. It does not matter what
I've read many comments and articles here on Lindows and, while a few actually catch this, most people on
The first criticism I usually see in any Lindows discussion here is the comment that it's stupid to run any system as root. That is true for a Linux system, but this comment itself shows the prejudice many of us have that is so ingrained we don't see it -- we are looking at it only from one point of view -- that of the techinically oriented. This comment in itself shows we are fogetting Lindows is emulating a system where most people don't even log in -- where anybody who turns on the computer has the equivalent of root access.
It doesn't matter what we think. Lindows is not aimed at us. On the other hand, Lindows just may be the thing that breaks the monopoly open and makes it easier for other operating systems to find a larger piece of the market share.
And more market share is a good thing (unless you're a Linux user who is a bit of a snob and wants to be using an OS not many people overall use because it allows you to be a techie snob/snot and look down your nose at others who may be very intelligent, but not knowledgable in the same areas you are).
Isn't that system limited to Euro systems? I know I've looked into a settop box for a DVR with schedule abilities, but I can't find anything out there that can get channel listings for the US market. Other than a program to download US cable/sat market listings and act as a timer for a DVR/PVR, everything else seems to be out there and in open source for Linux -- IR projects for remote control and automatic control of your cable/sat box from the computer, DVD players, and, of course, MP3 and other audio programs if you want it to handle your music collection as well.
I've seen this system and one or two others, but nothing to do scheduling/program listings for US.
I swore I'd never get a PDA, cell phone, or any portable tech, but my best friend got an iPaq through work, so she gave me her old Palm v. I found Weasal, a reader that co-operates with Linux host programs, including a program that lets you make compressed e-books out of standard text files.
Right now I'm reading The Prince and the Pauper, and I've got over a dozen books lined up for download to my PDA for reading. I went by Project Gutenburg and downloaded a ton of classics (including Sherlock Holmes, Beowulf, a wide selection of Twain, Shakespeare, and Moliere). All of these are not only classics, but a lot of them have an element of fantasy to them as well (like Connecticut Yankee or MacBeth). It seems to me anyone who loves sci-fi or fantasy and has half a brain would be interested in the roots of fantasy, which include Shakespeare (MacBeth, The Tempest, Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream), and books like Connecticut Yankee. Beowulf is certainly one of the first true action/adventure works, and certainly much more engrossing than a high-budget flick with "Ahhnold". As for plays by Moliere -- he's just downright funny. There's also a lot to be said for Alexendre Dumas and books like The Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers.
Long live free e-texts!
I work for a small IT firm in Virginia. The boss knew most of the employees were planning to see either a midnight show or one of the early shows that day, so he took a lead from an IT firm in L.A. (from what they did for Episode I), declared the day St. Lucas Day, and gave everyone in the firm a paid day off. We all went to see an early showing together. Aside from us, there were only 5-10 other people in the theater for that showing (this is in Richmond, VA).
No -- Weak faith feels threatened. Faith that is not based on a literal interpertation of a particular faith's scriptures (such as the Bible) can often work hand in hand with science.
You are right that the public can often not tell the difference and that many religions villify science.
I keep remembering "The Martian Chronicles" and the line someone said about the Martian's had integraded science, religion, art, and culture. There was no need for any to be mutually exclusive. I've found in my life my faith and my interest in science go hand in hand. The more I learn about the workings of this universe through science, the more I wonder and marvel at the God/Goddess I believe in has created.