Yeh, but that is very unfair to Shatner. He has the Super-Rug 9000, the most amazing piece of hair replacement technology to ever be developed. Most politicians are bald.
Whoa! It's the fake Los Alamos PhD troll. I laughed when someone pointed out in a previous comment of yours, that you didn't even know which state Los Alamos was in.
But anyway, back on topic. Star Trek was incredibly liberal for its day, showing on a primetime show, russians, asians, blacks and women all working together for a common (mostly) peaceful cause. So even if you are full of bullshit, it was a nice troll.
Maybe if this level of trolling is too much for you, you can practice on something easier, like page-widening.
Teach them to love computers, and to do real things with them. Don't waste time on something that they'll pick up on their own anyway, given enough practice.
I can think of nothing sadder than a highscool kid sitting in front of a p3 with an ungodly amount of ram and hard drive, just numbly typing in thoughtless crap from a typing book.
Except maybe that my tax dollars bought the machine.
I don't even know what to say to that. Christ, I'm depressed enough already, do you have to say serious things like this and make it worse?
Teaching is easy, if you yourself want to learn. A teacher that can't find the time or be bothered to learn how to save a file and find it later, shouldn't be allowed to teach a class that has anything to do with computers.
Why did you become a teacher, and can you give any insight into why the other less clueful teachers did so? I'm just curious.
One of my favorite ways to have fun. I dress up in my Jedi robes with my lightsaber, and crash the real convetions. Had a friend who would dress up as Solo too. Damn the trekkies would go apeshit. But then we took it too far, and my friend started in on someone dressed up as Scotty about how the Falcon could outrun that ugly looking enterprise... The second largest ST convetion riot in North America.
Yes both mysql and postgres are superior. Is there a problem with using a superior substitute? If so, maybe since it's open source, we could dumb it down to the level of Access.
Seriously, they also provide features that let users make tools to use the database. Those tool-making features are called bash and perl. Duh.
Sorry, the sarcasm was subtle there. Windows is perfect for what it is used for (ruining the last chance that many highschool students will have to learn in a classroom enviroment). Basically, windows machines have replaced the typewriters that you would have seen in the 1970's (used to teach kids to be office monkeys and secretaries).
In my opinion, windows goes hand in hand with the attitude that is pervasive in the US k12 education "industry". One is a crappy attitude that nothing significant can be learned, and the other is an OS that does its best to stand in the way of learning.
The main point of my comment though, was that we should be teaching kids computers at the lowest levels. Make the appleII assembly language class mandatory, though the ones after that could be elective. Even just that, would mean in 10 years we'd have an entire generation in the workforce that had some insight into why a computer crashes (Hey! They *aren't* supposed to do that). Oh well.
My view is you may never use assembly language again, but if you don't learn it, you'll never truly understand a computer.
For this reason, the Apple II stands out. Just enough ram to do something useful, and yet with a cpu that is simple enough to not scare them away. For gods sake, even those that don't particularly like computers or programming can appreciate the significane of a computer that doesn't technically know how to mulitply or divide ("Heck, even I can do that!"). Plus, everything they learn is directly applicable to more advanced cpu's. Sure, the 68k and even PPC are nice and clean (x86, *ough*garbage*cough*)... but you can't really do anything fun with them until you're an expert (and I don't claim to be with those either). Maybe another 68xx or 65xx computer would fit these requirements, but a school is more likely to have old Apple II's (if they haven't landfilled them yet). I'd hold off on a z80 based system, even though I love the ugly little thing myself.
Hardware development would be a second class, nothing fancy, maybe just enough to have fun and impart a little understanding. I might even go for classes that prepped for technical jobs to a degree. Would be nice to actually think that some end up in the job force capable of recognizing the fundamental components of a nic, for instance.
I did consider volunteering to teach such a class, but after researching it a bit, discovered that it would be a less than welcome offer.
#1 Bureaucrats would bitch about having to "buy books no one will ever check out of the school library" even while they cripple kids so horribly, that they could never hope to simply sit down and read them to learn something.
#2 Some kids need encouragement, and some need a classroom enviroment to learn (though that kind of learning always grated on my nerves).
Not to mention that something like learning assembly language is something that is almost impossible with an "old PC" in such a situation. As for content creation, that's all we need, 10 million extra people who call themselves web designers. Haha.
The truth of the matter is, windows is perfect for what schools teach (which isn't much). They teach 99% of students to be typists, capable of using word and mucking around a bit in excel.
Which is strange when you think about it... the age of the typewriter is dead, there will come a time when we don't have to employ wageslaves to type dead trees back into electronic form.
So, what would you teach kids if not teaching them to be typing monkeys incapable of truly using a computer? Me, I'd dig those apple IIe's out of the closet, and teach them assembly language on the 6502. Teach them to write a compiler, and write their own programs with that compiler. The first kid to write a video game in such a fashion, gets an A+ and doesn't have to do anything but play the game the rest of the year. I'd teach them how to interface to that crappy 8bit bus, and have them dream up things to interface to it. We'd build them in class. They hate crappy resolution, with only a few colors? Maybe we'd take a crack at building an SVGA card for it.
And maybe, just maybe, those who passed that class would be eligible for the classes that use Mac OSX or linux on the g4 powermacs. Why those? Because x86 stinks, even if the rest of the hardware that goes with it is tolerable nowdays.
So, unless you were serious... tell me what *is wrong* with using Apple IIe's in the classroom.
I'm in the same boat as you, and it's mostly impossible. These things always need custom lcd driver chips, which you presumably have, but even if you use the heat gun to remove them, you'll never find the data sheets.
I'd tell you to grab a few cheapies off of earthlcd.com, but even there you have to be careful.. they're usually discontinued, and sometimes you can't find chips or datasheets for those either.
Re:One thing I've NEVER seen here....
on
Fair IP Laws?
·
· Score: 2
Oog isn't 30,000 years old. And he has a trademark on cavetrolling... I'd be careful not to dilute that if I were you.
Sorry I didn't make this clear. I was referring to civil lawsuits primarily. I'm much more tolerant of criminal courts... can't be too careful, and willing to spend alot extra just to be sure.
And suppose I'm a good little boy, and come up with rock solid statistics... what good does that do? At best I convince you, and there are 2 assholes on slashdot complaining where once there was one. I kinda like it how it is now, don't want to share the complaining.
Or maybe you mean that if the statistics were real, and my reasoning was without flaw, someone in congress would sit up and take notice? Haha *LOL*.
Ethics are the basis of law, which are only crude imitations. But, oh well... it was worth the karmic butchery to get to say what I did, even if I'm just another voice screaming in the mob.
Bleh. Cheapest I've seen a 6502 is $7, and he'd need logic to do dram refresh. The z80 is $2 at jameco.com, and can do its own refresh.
Then again, I guess that's moot nowdays... he almost certainly can find a few static 32k's for less than a buck (the cache ram off a 486 works nicely). In that case, 6502 asm is nicer than z80, I never did like the idea of io ports.
Most modern IDE hard drives aren't easy to interface to an 8bit data bus. Go with a cheap Compact flash chip, which is ide-like and 8 bits wide. Cheap, can get them at walmart, and they have a crapload of storage for a 8bitter.
Keyboard is tough, I wouldn't want to interface a ps2 to the thing, and yet it's a pain to build your own matrix keyboard (though the concept is simple enough). Maybe a serial port for this?
Monitor is another problem, but probably a cheap serial lcd would work nicely. Heck, earthlcd.com has some kickass pixel lcd's, in the sub $50 range. Could actually have it do pacman like games and whatnot, if he cared to. Though serial would be simpler.
Note: Don't listen to the morons that will try to push a Strongarm or something on you... that's an intermediate (or higher) level project.
Report fails to mention that 43% of those who responded favorably also thought that a trip to the planet where Kirk banged the green chick was part of the package.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeh, but that is very unfair to Shatner. He has the Super-Rug 9000, the most amazing piece of hair replacement technology to ever be developed. Most politicians are bald.
Whoa! It's the fake Los Alamos PhD troll. I laughed when someone pointed out in a previous comment of yours, that you didn't even know which state Los Alamos was in.
But anyway, back on topic. Star Trek was incredibly liberal for its day, showing on a primetime show, russians, asians, blacks and women all working together for a common (mostly) peaceful cause. So even if you are full of bullshit, it was a nice troll.
Maybe if this level of trolling is too much for you, you can practice on something easier, like page-widening.
Teach them to love computers, and to do real things with them. Don't waste time on something that they'll pick up on their own anyway, given enough practice.
I can think of nothing sadder than a highscool kid sitting in front of a p3 with an ungodly amount of ram and hard drive, just numbly typing in thoughtless crap from a typing book.
Except maybe that my tax dollars bought the machine.
Lord forbid that kids be forced to "learn another language" in school.
Egads!
Strange, I always thought they were an even mix of romulans, ferengi and cardassian myself.
I don't even know what to say to that. Christ, I'm depressed enough already, do you have to say serious things like this and make it worse?
Teaching is easy, if you yourself want to learn. A teacher that can't find the time or be bothered to learn how to save a file and find it later, shouldn't be allowed to teach a class that has anything to do with computers.
Why did you become a teacher, and can you give any insight into why the other less clueful teachers did so? I'm just curious.
Yes, I know they aren't graphical. I did say superior, did I not?
Maybe we oughtta get you an etch-a-sketch too.
One of my favorite ways to have fun. I dress up in my Jedi robes with my lightsaber, and crash the real convetions. Had a friend who would dress up as Solo too. Damn the trekkies would go apeshit. But then we took it too far, and my friend started in on someone dressed up as Scotty about how the Falcon could outrun that ugly looking enterprise... The second largest ST convetion riot in North America.
Ouch.
Yes both mysql and postgres are superior. Is there a problem with using a superior substitute? If so, maybe since it's open source, we could dumb it down to the level of Access.
Seriously, they also provide features that let users make tools to use the database. Those tool-making features are called bash and perl. Duh.
Yeh, there's a M$ Access alternative. It's called mysql or postgresSQL.
None for powerpoint that I know of, but the world would be a better place without that piece of crap (or even substitutes).
Lord forbid any children be exposed to those awful satanic Sparcstations!!!
(J/K of course).
Sorry, the sarcasm was subtle there. Windows is perfect for what it is used for (ruining the last chance that many highschool students will have to learn in a classroom enviroment). Basically, windows machines have replaced the typewriters that you would have seen in the 1970's (used to teach kids to be office monkeys and secretaries).
In my opinion, windows goes hand in hand with the attitude that is pervasive in the US k12 education "industry". One is a crappy attitude that nothing significant can be learned, and the other is an OS that does its best to stand in the way of learning.
The main point of my comment though, was that we should be teaching kids computers at the lowest levels. Make the appleII assembly language class mandatory, though the ones after that could be elective. Even just that, would mean in 10 years we'd have an entire generation in the workforce that had some insight into why a computer crashes (Hey! They *aren't* supposed to do that). Oh well.
My view is you may never use assembly language again, but if you don't learn it, you'll never truly understand a computer.
For this reason, the Apple II stands out. Just enough ram to do something useful, and yet with a cpu that is simple enough to not scare them away. For gods sake, even those that don't particularly like computers or programming can appreciate the significane of a computer that doesn't technically know how to mulitply or divide ("Heck, even I can do that!"). Plus, everything they learn is directly applicable to more advanced cpu's. Sure, the 68k and even PPC are nice and clean (x86, *ough*garbage*cough*)... but you can't really do anything fun with them until you're an expert (and I don't claim to be with those either). Maybe another 68xx or 65xx computer would fit these requirements, but a school is more likely to have old Apple II's (if they haven't landfilled them yet). I'd hold off on a z80 based system, even though I love the ugly little thing myself.
Hardware development would be a second class, nothing fancy, maybe just enough to have fun and impart a little understanding. I might even go for classes that prepped for technical jobs to a degree. Would be nice to actually think that some end up in the job force capable of recognizing the fundamental components of a nic, for instance.
I did consider volunteering to teach such a class, but after researching it a bit, discovered that it would be a less than welcome offer.
Score: Bureaucratic stupidity 945,231,543,234,234,098,302,451, Humanity 0.
Two problems.
#1 Bureaucrats would bitch about having to "buy books no one will ever check out of the school library" even while they cripple kids so horribly, that they could never hope to simply sit down and read them to learn something.
#2 Some kids need encouragement, and some need a classroom enviroment to learn (though that kind of learning always grated on my nerves).
Not to mention that something like learning assembly language is something that is almost impossible with an "old PC" in such a situation. As for content creation, that's all we need, 10 million extra people who call themselves web designers. Haha.
The truth of the matter is, windows is perfect for what schools teach (which isn't much). They teach 99% of students to be typists, capable of using word and mucking around a bit in excel.
Which is strange when you think about it... the age of the typewriter is dead, there will come a time when we don't have to employ wageslaves to type dead trees back into electronic form.
So, what would you teach kids if not teaching them to be typing monkeys incapable of truly using a computer? Me, I'd dig those apple IIe's out of the closet, and teach them assembly language on the 6502. Teach them to write a compiler, and write their own programs with that compiler. The first kid to write a video game in such a fashion, gets an A+ and doesn't have to do anything but play the game the rest of the year. I'd teach them how to interface to that crappy 8bit bus, and have them dream up things to interface to it. We'd build them in class. They hate crappy resolution, with only a few colors? Maybe we'd take a crack at building an SVGA card for it.
And maybe, just maybe, those who passed that class would be eligible for the classes that use Mac OSX or linux on the g4 powermacs. Why those? Because x86 stinks, even if the rest of the hardware that goes with it is tolerable nowdays.
So, unless you were serious... tell me what *is wrong* with using Apple IIe's in the classroom.
I'm in the same boat as you, and it's mostly impossible. These things always need custom lcd driver chips, which you presumably have, but even if you use the heat gun to remove them, you'll never find the data sheets.
I'd tell you to grab a few cheapies off of earthlcd.com, but even there you have to be careful.. they're usually discontinued, and sometimes you can't find chips or datasheets for those either.
Oog isn't 30,000 years old. And he has a trademark on cavetrolling... I'd be careful not to dilute that if I were you.
I sympathize with you, for not being able to imagine a world without either.
Sorry I didn't make this clear. I was referring to civil lawsuits primarily. I'm much more tolerant of criminal courts... can't be too careful, and willing to spend alot extra just to be sure.
And suppose I'm a good little boy, and come up with rock solid statistics... what good does that do? At best I convince you, and there are 2 assholes on slashdot complaining where once there was one. I kinda like it how it is now, don't want to share the complaining.
Or maybe you mean that if the statistics were real, and my reasoning was without flaw, someone in congress would sit up and take notice? Haha *LOL*.
Ethics are the basis of law, which are only crude imitations. But, oh well... it was worth the karmic butchery to get to say what I did, even if I'm just another voice screaming in the mob.
They won't close their doors. They'll just incorporate. Haha...
Well, there are fewer non-corp places to work for every day. I can say that without implying that you would *like* to work for one, I would think.
Who wants to?
Maybe someone who'd like to build something REAL for a change?
Bleh. Cheapest I've seen a 6502 is $7, and he'd need logic to do dram refresh. The z80 is $2 at jameco.com, and can do its own refresh.
Then again, I guess that's moot nowdays... he almost certainly can find a few static 32k's for less than a buck (the cache ram off a 486 works nicely). In that case, 6502 asm is nicer than z80, I never did like the idea of io ports.
Most modern IDE hard drives aren't easy to interface to an 8bit data bus. Go with a cheap Compact flash chip, which is ide-like and 8 bits wide. Cheap, can get them at walmart, and they have a crapload of storage for a 8bitter.
Keyboard is tough, I wouldn't want to interface a ps2 to the thing, and yet it's a pain to build your own matrix keyboard (though the concept is simple enough). Maybe a serial port for this?
Monitor is another problem, but probably a cheap serial lcd would work nicely. Heck, earthlcd.com has some kickass pixel lcd's, in the sub $50 range. Could actually have it do pacman like games and whatnot, if he cared to. Though serial would be simpler.
Note: Don't listen to the morons that will try to push a Strongarm or something on you... that's an intermediate (or higher) level project.
Report fails to mention that 43% of those who responded favorably also thought that a trip to the planet where Kirk banged the green chick was part of the package.
Nah, just means you'll never work at PARC. Write your own bleeding edge software...