Disney is all about making money. It makes no sense for disney to release a movie and not try to make money on it. With that said...
(IMBM - I may be mistaken, but) Disney is under a lot of restriction by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli about advertising and marketing.
Miyazaki's movies (I haven't seen them all) do not seem to be about mass appeal and marketing. If anything, his movies push for a much more simple way of interacting with our enviornment and society. Is it really that bad if we do not get images of this motion picture flashed at us every 12 minutes during network TV commercials? Is it really that bad if resources are not wasted for lunchboxes that will be tossed away and forgotten and tossed into a landfill to decompose?
If I'm not mistaken, Miyazaki doesn't want what you are asking for.
If I decide to start doing something actively in the field of space/astronomy (In addition to Seti@home) I will find an asteroid and name it "SLASHDOT" instead of something like J002E2 (Pronounced how?). Then everyone can make silly posts about the REAL slashdot effect that will end the world.
I'm also a school teacher. I'm using the unit that I'm just starting and 9/11 to make some really powerful statements/accusations about our government.
Today at our school is read-white-blue day. Well, I'm wearing my libertarian T-Shirt of the bill of rights (Void where prohibited by law).
My classes are starting to read the Crucible (by Arthur Miller.) Many see it as an over-hyped play about the salem witch trials. However, it is a chronicle of how our country (always) seems to over-react to things that may be contrary: Witches, Africans, Commies, Aids Victims/Gays, Terorists, [insert other items here].
The discussions so far today (I'm having my prep period now -- Probably I'll get reprimanded by the administration for using the computer for personal use. Side note: The district has gone Big Brother with computers and cameras (we are a small district in a town of 1500 people), and yes, big brother is here watching.) As I was saying...
The discussions today have been remarkable. Students don't seem (at least by their comments - We're talking Juniors in high school here.) to want to live in a society that the government seems to be pushing us.
Take Miller's Comment in the text of his play:
It is impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions, and the balance has yet to struck between order and freedom.
And throw in this AP story
Anyway, I'm a bastard for talking bad about america at this moment. Hopefully, I'll still have a job tomorrow.
OK, its running now. Things I'm wanting to listen to are actually in the library. (Loreena McKennit and great Big Sea.) Since I'm living in radio hell at the moment (3 radio stations: 2 country (bad country -- I like the good stuff), and one POP station that still plays Bon Jovi on a regular basis.), Net Radio and Live365 are/was my lifeline. But AudioGalaxy/Rhapsody is offering music I'd like to listen to. What is wrong with tossing them 10$ a month? I haven't decide to do this yet, but I may. We'll see what happens on the 16th. Will I still want to use the service? That is the big question. If so, I'll pay the price.
What would i like to see? I'd like to be able to take my playlist and "shuffle" it. I'd like for the interface wot work better in 800x600. Stop the presses: While looking at Rhapsody to accurately explain a small gripe, I found out how to shuffle the playlist. (Actions > Playlist > Shuffle. OR The shuffle button.) Back to gripes...
The interface could be more eye appealing. yea I know, Totally subjective.
I also want a shuffle that works. It seems that It just plays right down the playlist... Ok, that is enough stream of conscious. Back to work...
I decided to pitch an arguement to my wife about doing this kind of mod with some equipment. After much explanation she just sat there laughing at me... All she would say is, "I can't belive you are arguing 'Smaller is Better!'" What can I say? I never win.
The Two Towers is NOT on the net. I did a seraach on WInMX to grab the trailer to the movie to check out something. I was suprised when I saw "Two Towers 2002"
Well I did what any one would have done. I exclaimed, "Holy shit" and went to DL it.
Needless to say, I was in a long ass line. Well I went to find other sources and what did I get. Some Busty Asian porno movie.
Obviously someone is just renaming the movie to get us all in a tizzy.
(Why do I post this...? No one will read it, much less, moderate it)
I know it has been said that it would be nice to turn off the wife... But I think it would be nice to turn my wife off AND back on again (at the appropriate times, of course). My Wife will also want the remote to turn me off too.
I was reading /.'s article about warchalking the other day and my wife asked what I was reading! This is rare as she is familiar with the slashdot masthead and has always stayed away whilst I read. Anyway, I tell her. Our resulting conversation was like this: Wife: God, some people have way too much time. Me: yea pretty wild huh. Wife: Why are you grinning like that. Me: huh? I'm not grinning. Wife: You aren't thinking of going out to do this are you? Me: Can't. I don't have wireless connectivity. Wife: You've got DSL. Me: --Edited speech about differences between dialup, dsl, wireless, 801b.11 blah blah blah.-- Wife: So you're telling me that you want to buy a laptop and walk around town with it? Me: I didn't say that. We don't have the money anyway. Wife: You'd do it though, wouldn't you? Me: I dunno. Wife: You would do it! Why the hell would you want to walk around and pry into other people computer networks. Me: Dunno. Curiosity? Wife: What? Curiosity. I might be curious to know why the neighbors are moaning so loud every night after letterman, but you don't see me over there with my x-10 camera laptop!
OK, I'm a big Bawls fan (Yup the pun is half the fun) Bawls is a nice drink and comes in 10oz funky blue bottles (Blue Bawls -- The puns never stop). Anyway The stuff has a great taste, unlike code red -- bleck. It can be purchased at one of Slashdot's fine Sponsors Here what the official BAWLS site has to say about Guarana:
What is Guarana?
Guarana (Paullina Cupana) is nut-like seed of a climbing vine that grows in the Amazon basin in Brazil just south of the equator. Guarana has been used for centuries by the indigenous people of this area as natural energy supplement and today over 25% of the soft drinks on the market in Brazil contain Guarana as a main ingredient.
The Guarana berry contains a naturally-occurring form of caffeine which is 2.5 times stronger than the caffeine found in coffee, tea, and soft drinks. In the United States Guarana holds a GRAS-status (Generally Regarded As Safe). However, as with any other form of caffeine, individuals with heart problems or high blood-pressure should use caution when consuming large quantities of Guarana. The recommended daily dose of caffeine is 35 mg., but keep in mind that most coffees and teas can contain anywhere from 2 to 5 times this amount. So BAWLS® Guarana, with its 80mg/12 oz.. is no more caffeine than a cup of coffee.
What is Guarana used for?
Guarana is used as a natural aid to increase performance. Be it physical or mental. Guarana is also said to help after strenuous exercise by cleansing the body of lactic acid buildup and thus bringing energy levels back to normal. Keep in mind that Guarana, as any caffeine, is a natural diuretic, and you should not drink Guarana in liquid form (such as BAWLS® Guarana) as a substitute for water, but rather as a pre- or post-work out supplement.
Stormfront Studios' Neverwinter Nights launches on America Online. It was based on the Gold Box SSI AD&D games, and was programmed by Cathryn Mataga.
NWN was the first experience I had with PvP (Well maybe the second -- I played a lot of Trade Wars.) The game, even though it was on AOL was lot of fun and the best part of about it were the guilds. I spent a lot of time in the "Temple of Lloth" as Gomph and was a great lackey. I remember playing around with a Mad Cleric by the name of Holy Church that eventually got kicked off of AOL for his overzealous PVP tactics.
NWN, back then was not supposed to be a PVP game, A player could not even hit another player with his/her sword when in an "encounter" with another. But it was dicovered that magic spells did have an effect on others. I think Mataga (the programmer)assumed people would cast spells to help each other. So spells like 'haste' were great. But where benificial spells helped, so did the bad spells. Fireball and hold person and lightning come to mind.
Three years ago when I heard about Bioware making NeverWinter nights, I was taken back down memory lane. (It's only been 10 years since I played on AOL... Argh!)
Trade Wars 2002, for those that were not into the BBS scene, was a graphical (Ansi Graphics in the menus anyway--everything else was Text based)game where you explored around a universe through "Warp Points" and traded for a profit.
The trader would buy mineral or food or some other item to load up the holds on a freighter ship. Then the trader would ward to another system that was looking to buy the items you had to sell. With the profit you could upgrade your ship and buy fighters to attack other players!
The trader had a certain number of turns each day to do everything (better ships had more turns); and when the trader ran out of turns, that is where he/she stopped until more turns were awarded the next day. I found it golden when I found a traders ship with no fighters when I had my Federation starship (so the names were't that original).
My favorite tactic was to blow up a trader's ship, send out probes to see where his/her escape pod went to. Get the escape pod, and tow it to a dead end sector and place a crap-load of space mines in the next, "escape" sector. When the trader logged in on the next day, he/she would see that they were attacked, but still alive. Then when he/she would go to the stardock to buy a new ship...Blammo! hehe
This game was also a team game with "corporations" for teams. You could let people into your corporation and populate planets that had massive fighter production etc etc etc...
Even the "Underground" element of the game was great. Traders could put bounties on each other. It was great.
To those that played in Bloomington/Normal Area in 91-95, on the BBSes of Castle Roogna, Tragic Flaw, Tragic Flaw II, Prarie BBS, and "Carl's BBS" (I can't remember the name--Damn I'm getting old): I salute you, Trader Mick, Magician Humphrey, Richard Speck, Dragon Lady, Mac, and others. I was know and feared as "Captain Phooey".
Can't wait for the good modules to start being developed.
I'm with you there. So far I've DLed about 25 modules and all are pretty much hack and slash. To get good content (if you are looking for more than H/S) from the community is going to take some time. Why? You may ask when Bioware has Boasted its easy to use Toolset. Well, the toolset is really easy for making a landscape (flat as a tabletop and everything is right angles). But to get real good gameplay out of a module, there needs to be some nice programmed scripting for monsters, NPCs, sequences, custom sounds, intro movies, etc. All of this stuff takes time. I've been slaving away with scripting, and, although the scripting language is pretty intuitive if you've had programming experience, the functions used by the NWN are not documented with a good amount explanation which results in a lot of trial and error. More time. Now that school is in session, there will be a lot of college students looking for a distraction from class. Hopefull they will find a valid distraction by taking the time to make a good NWN module.
One of the greatest things about this country is its freedom to information (weather it is privacy, speach, armaments, whatever...) Information is and has usually (unless the NSA is involved) always been there. Ask any librarian. The local library here (small conservative town) will not even filter internet content on the public computer. (We all know how fast a horny teenager can find pr0n sites.) If internet providers are now leagally obliged to filter sites for whatever reason, you can bet that EVERY gov't agency, EVERY religious organization, EVERY ACLU chapter, ANYBODY with a few bucks will be dictating what gets blocked. Watch, Non-Technophiles will want hacker sites like slashdot to be blocked! I've always looked at the internet as a huge library. Stuff is there. Good and Bad. It isn't up to the librarians to keep you away from bad stuff. It is your own moores and conscience. (Don;t give me any rap about people without these...They should have their pursuits blocked.)
flogger
It's a parenting issue. There are a lot of good movies out there. I keep a really close watch on what my children watch (No TV and an occassional DVD on the computer.) A lot of directors/Hollywood throw in stuff just to generate sales. Big explosions, sex scenes. Sometimes explosions, violence, sex fits into the plot of a movie, but sometimes it does not.
Look at the movie Titanic. Fairly good movie. But as a parent that is trying to raise children to be chaste until marriage (one goal among many), the sex scene in the car (on the boat) is very objectionable. What did I do? I ripped the DVD, ran it trough priemere and took the scene out. Did it hurt the movie? Not a bit. If I somehow changed Cameron's (He's the director, you know)vision, I changed it from, "It is Ok to have sex when you are not married if you are being chased by thugs" to "When being chased by thugs it is important to stay alive." Using this same example in a presentation I was questioned about why not take out the Nude Painting scenes. That was artistic nudity. And I see nothing wrong with that. My kids have seen nudes in many styles of art and recognize the beauty (and sometimes revulsion) of the human body; and hopefully with some help outside of Hollywood, they will learn some good morals.
flogger (name's from the Russian Mig-23 jet, Nothing sexual.:-) )
I use WinMX and some other Gnutellas to grab Out Of Print stuff (and Further for getting Dead shows), but I am at the mercy of the computers that I connect through. I'd gladly give $0.25 to fully DL a file and not have it disconnected/corrupted on me.
flogger
This could be a good thing. Standardized security platforms that help PCs to be just that: Secure is a good idea. Now there are so many routes to go for a "Secure system". What is secure for one person/business is totally unacceptable for another. If the government stepped in and gave everyone a "All-In-One-Grand-Security-FireWall-Intrusion-Alar m-Type-Program"(tm), users could then have "acceptable" security. Yea, I know. How the hell is the Gov't supposed to know what security means. But it would be better than it is now. It seems that 90% of the people I know have no idea about open ports or filesharing.
Anyway, back to the point: Hopefully this discussion won;t turn into a bunch of people yelling (and getting modded up for yelling) "Big Brother-Ware! I'll Never install this." Trust the Gov't a little. This might be what it takes to get Average Joe Blow User to stop sharing his C drive on the phone company's DSL network.
I stumbled across a Bridge building game a few years ago. Pontifex! (you can grab the demo at the site. It is a great game that lets you construct a bridge by using light weight material/ heavy weight material/ cable/ and decks. while having to stay within a simple materials budget. Each type of constuction equipment had advantage and disadvantages (weight/strength/cost/ etc.)
The best part about this is that it is REALLY EASY to use and understand.
My 7 year old daughter plays with it, and it is not suprising to hear her make comments (I made a bride with the same kind of triangles) or hear her ask questions about a bridge ( Why isn't this bridge too tall with the supports as wide as they are?).
This game is great. I reccomend it.
This is really interesting. Lots of uses as we can all imagine. What I find most interesting is that this "toothPhone" is just a small step away from Jane in Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead.
The Republic, of course, is eager to quash these separatists, but they never make a compelling case--or any case, for that matter--as to why, if they are such a freedom-loving regime, these planets should not be allowed to check out of the Republic and take control of their own destinies
The #1 Rule of any government is to remain in power. That includes keeping its subjets as subjects. Ask Abraham Lincoln if it is OK for some "planets" to check out from the current government policy.
This is actually very true. I work in a high school, and software knowledge problems are from the educators 95% of the time. I have 10 computers in my classroom, and I installed OpenOffice on them when I was denied an office suite due to $$ restrictions. The students picked it up in 10 minutes (as an aside: Open Office also works great for opening corrupted powerpoint and excel files that office 2000 won't). During the summers, I train teachers how to use software, and it is FRUSTRATING when an adult looks at you as if you have strange jungle disease when you explain how to copy and paste.
Can schools make the switch to Linux? Yup, Doing it now. No need for MS Proxy or Border manager when E-Smith(the commercial site) offers a great solution.
Open Office / Star Office is the best thing that has come down the pipe for schools. If a student can learn to use these less expensive/just as robust software packages productively, then they can switch to using what ever MS office product that they may need to use on the job once they get out in the "Real World."
What is wrong with education? I don't think computer illiterate teachers are the problem, but it fixing that certainly doesn't hurt.
Slashdot Mirror
A couple of things....
Disney is all about making money. It makes no sense for disney to release a movie and not try to make money on it. With that said...
(IMBM - I may be mistaken, but) Disney is under a lot of restriction by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli about advertising and marketing.
Miyazaki's movies (I haven't seen them all) do not seem to be about mass appeal and marketing. If anything, his movies push for a much more simple way of interacting with our enviornment and society. Is it really that bad if we do not get images of this motion picture flashed at us every 12 minutes during network TV commercials? Is it really that bad if resources are not wasted for lunchboxes that will be tossed away and forgotten and tossed into a landfill to decompose?
If I'm not mistaken, Miyazaki doesn't want what you are asking for.
If I decide to start doing something actively in the field of space/astronomy (In addition to Seti@home) I will find an asteroid and name it "SLASHDOT" instead of something like J002E2 (Pronounced how?). Then everyone can make silly posts about the REAL slashdot effect that will end the world.
Today at our school is read-white-blue day. Well, I'm wearing my libertarian T-Shirt of the bill of rights (Void where prohibited by law).
My classes are starting to read the Crucible (by Arthur Miller.) Many see it as an over-hyped play about the salem witch trials. However, it is a chronicle of how our country (always) seems to over-react to things that may be contrary: Witches, Africans, Commies, Aids Victims/Gays, Terorists, [insert other items here].
The discussions so far today (I'm having my prep period now -- Probably I'll get reprimanded by the administration for using the computer for personal use. Side note: The district has gone Big Brother with computers and cameras (we are a small district in a town of 1500 people), and yes, big brother is here watching.) As I was saying...
The discussions today have been remarkable. Students don't seem (at least by their comments - We're talking Juniors in high school here.) to want to live in a society that the government seems to be pushing us.
Take Miller's Comment in the text of his play: And throw in this AP story Anyway, I'm a bastard for talking bad about america at this moment. Hopefully, I'll still have a job tomorrow.
al
Warning: Counsciousness streaming ahead:
OK, its running now. Things I'm wanting to listen to are actually in the library. (Loreena McKennit and great Big Sea.) Since I'm living in radio hell at the moment (3 radio stations: 2 country (bad country -- I like the good stuff), and one POP station that still plays Bon Jovi on a regular basis.), Net Radio and Live365 are/was my lifeline. But AudioGalaxy/Rhapsody is offering music I'd like to listen to. What is wrong with tossing them 10$ a month? I haven't decide to do this yet, but I may. We'll see what happens on the 16th. Will I still want to use the service? That is the big question. If so, I'll pay the price.
What would i like to see? I'd like to be able to take my playlist and "shuffle" it.
I'd like for the interface wot work better in 800x600.
Stop the presses: While looking at Rhapsody to accurately explain a small gripe, I found out how to shuffle the playlist. (Actions > Playlist > Shuffle. OR The shuffle button.)
Back to gripes...
The interface could be more eye appealing. yea I know, Totally subjective.
I also want a shuffle that works. It seems that It just plays right down the playlist...
Ok, that is enough stream of conscious. Back to work...
I decided to pitch an arguement to my wife about doing this kind of mod with some equipment. After much explanation she just sat there laughing at me... All she would say is, "I can't belive you are arguing 'Smaller is Better!'"
What can I say? I never win.
The Two Towers is NOT on the net. I did a seraach on WInMX to grab the trailer to the movie to check out something. I was suprised when I saw "Two Towers 2002"
Well I did what any one would have done. I exclaimed, "Holy shit" and went to DL it.
Needless to say, I was in a long ass line. Well I went to find other sources and what did I get. Some Busty Asian porno movie.
Obviously someone is just renaming the movie to get us all in a tizzy.
(Why do I post this...? No one will read it, much less, moderate it)
I know it has been said that it would be nice to turn off the wife... But I think it would be nice to turn my wife off AND back on again (at the appropriate times, of course). My Wife will also want the remote to turn me off too.
So does anybody know what those four keys are?
;-)
CTL-ALT-Del then S?
I was reading /.'s article about warchalking the other day and my wife asked what I was reading! This is rare as she is familiar with the slashdot masthead and has always stayed away whilst I read. Anyway, I tell her. Our resulting conversation was like this:
Wife: God, some people have way too much time.
Me: yea pretty wild huh.
Wife: Why are you grinning like that.
Me: huh? I'm not grinning.
Wife: You aren't thinking of going out to do this are you?
Me: Can't. I don't have wireless connectivity.
Wife: You've got DSL.
Me: --Edited speech about differences between dialup, dsl, wireless, 801b.11 blah blah blah.--
Wife: So you're telling me that you want to buy a laptop and walk around town with it?
Me: I didn't say that. We don't have the money anyway.
Wife: You'd do it though, wouldn't you?
Me: I dunno.
Wife: You would do it! Why the hell would you want to walk around and pry into other people computer networks.
Me: Dunno. Curiosity?
Wife: What? Curiosity. I might be curious to know why the neighbors are moaning so loud every night after letterman, but you don't see me over there with my x-10 camera laptop!
From there the discussion went downhill....
(ok moderators: Off topic, Funny, REAL LIFE)
Here what the official BAWLS site has to say about Guarana:
And to think, I just ordered a case Satuday.
Stormfront Studios' Neverwinter Nights launches on America Online. It was based on the Gold Box SSI AD&D games, and was programmed by Cathryn Mataga.
NWN was the first experience I had with PvP (Well maybe the second -- I played a lot of Trade Wars.) The game, even though it was on AOL was lot of fun and the best part of about it were the guilds. I spent a lot of time in the "Temple of Lloth" as Gomph and was a great lackey.
I remember playing around with a Mad Cleric by the name of Holy Church that eventually got kicked off of AOL for his overzealous PVP tactics.
NWN, back then was not supposed to be a PVP game, A player could not even hit another player with his/her sword when in an "encounter" with another. But it was dicovered that magic spells did have an effect on others. I think Mataga (the programmer)assumed people would cast spells to help each other. So spells like 'haste' were great. But where benificial spells helped, so did the bad spells. Fireball and hold person and lightning come to mind.
Three years ago when I heard about Bioware making NeverWinter nights, I was taken back down memory lane. (It's only been 10 years since I played on AOL... Argh!)
Trade Wars 2002, for those that were not into the BBS scene, was a graphical (Ansi Graphics in the menus anyway--everything else was Text based)game where you explored around a universe through "Warp Points" and traded for a profit.
The trader would buy mineral or food or some other item to load up the holds on a freighter ship. Then the trader would ward to another system that was looking to buy the items you had to sell. With the profit you could upgrade your ship and buy fighters to attack other players!
The trader had a certain number of turns each day to do everything (better ships had more turns); and when the trader ran out of turns, that is where he/she stopped until more turns were awarded the next day. I found it golden when I found a traders ship with no fighters when I had my Federation starship (so the names were't that original).
My favorite tactic was to blow up a trader's ship, send out probes to see where his/her escape pod went to. Get the escape pod, and tow it to a dead end sector and place a crap-load of space mines in the next, "escape" sector. When the trader logged in on the next day, he/she would see that they were attacked, but still alive. Then when he/she would go to the stardock to buy a new ship...Blammo! hehe
This game was also a team game with "corporations" for teams. You could let people into your corporation and populate planets that had massive fighter production etc etc etc...
Even the "Underground" element of the game was great. Traders could put bounties on each other. It was great.
To those that played in Bloomington/Normal Area in 91-95, on the BBSes of Castle Roogna, Tragic Flaw, Tragic Flaw II, Prarie BBS, and "Carl's BBS" (I can't remember the name--Damn I'm getting old): I salute you, Trader Mick, Magician Humphrey, Richard Speck, Dragon Lady, Mac, and others. I was know and feared as "Captain Phooey".
One of the greatest things about this country is its freedom to information (weather it is privacy, speach, armaments, whatever...) Information is and has usually (unless the NSA is involved) always been there. Ask any librarian. The local library here (small conservative town) will not even filter internet content on the public computer. (We all know how fast a horny teenager can find pr0n sites.) If internet providers are now leagally obliged to filter sites for whatever reason, you can bet that EVERY gov't agency, EVERY religious organization, EVERY ACLU chapter, ANYBODY with a few bucks will be dictating what gets blocked. Watch, Non-Technophiles will want hacker sites like slashdot to be blocked!
I've always looked at the internet as a huge library. Stuff is there. Good and Bad. It isn't up to the librarians to keep you away from bad stuff. It is your own moores and conscience. (Don;t give me any rap about people without these...They should have their pursuits blocked.)
flogger
It's a parenting issue. There are a lot of good movies out there. I keep a really close watch on what my children watch (No TV and an occassional DVD on the computer.) A lot of directors/Hollywood throw in stuff just to generate sales. Big explosions, sex scenes. Sometimes explosions, violence, sex fits into the plot of a movie, but sometimes it does not.
:-) )
Look at the movie Titanic. Fairly good movie. But as a parent that is trying to raise children to be chaste until marriage (one goal among many), the sex scene in the car (on the boat) is very objectionable. What did I do? I ripped the DVD, ran it trough priemere and took the scene out. Did it hurt the movie? Not a bit. If I somehow changed Cameron's (He's the director, you know)vision, I changed it from, "It is Ok to have sex when you are not married if you are being chased by thugs" to "When being chased by thugs it is important to stay alive." Using this same example in a presentation I was questioned about why not take out the Nude Painting scenes. That was artistic nudity. And I see nothing wrong with that. My kids have seen nudes in many styles of art and recognize the beauty (and sometimes revulsion) of the human body; and hopefully with some help outside of Hollywood, they will learn some good morals.
flogger
(name's from the Russian Mig-23 jet, Nothing sexual.
I use WinMX and some other Gnutellas to grab Out Of Print stuff (and Further for getting Dead shows), but I am at the mercy of the computers that I connect through. I'd gladly give $0.25 to fully DL a file and not have it disconnected/corrupted on me. flogger
The O'Reilly books are great for introducing new topics and for delving deeper into topics that you are already familiar with. Well worth a look.
This could be a good thing. Standardized security platforms that help PCs to be just that: Secure is a good idea. Now there are so many routes to go for a "Secure system". What is secure for one person/business is totally unacceptable for another. If the government stepped in and gave everyone a "All-In-One-Grand-Security-FireWall-Intrusion-Alar m-Type-Program"(tm), users could then have "acceptable" security. Yea, I know. How the hell is the Gov't supposed to know what security means. But it would be better than it is now. It seems that 90% of the people I know have no idea about open ports or filesharing.
Anyway, back to the point: Hopefully this discussion won;t turn into a bunch of people yelling (and getting modded up for yelling) "Big Brother-Ware! I'll Never install this."
Trust the Gov't a little. This might be what it takes to get Average Joe Blow User to stop sharing his C drive on the phone company's DSL network.
flogger
I stumbled across a Bridge building game a few years ago. Pontifex! (you can grab the demo at the site. It is a great game that lets you construct a bridge by using light weight material/ heavy weight material/ cable/ and decks. while having to stay within a simple materials budget. Each type of constuction equipment had advantage and disadvantages (weight/strength/cost/ etc.)
The best part about this is that it is REALLY EASY to use and understand.
My 7 year old daughter plays with it, and it is not suprising to hear her make comments (I made a bride with the same kind of triangles) or hear her ask questions about a bridge ( Why isn't this bridge too tall with the supports as wide as they are?).
This game is great. I reccomend it.
flogger
hehe. Funny. What is the first thing I see when the page loads? an ad.
flogger
This is really interesting. Lots of uses as we can all imagine. What I find most interesting is that this "toothPhone" is just a small step away from Jane in Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead.
If a site is /.ed, don't forget Google Cache.
Here for the main story.
And here for the parenthetical article.
[/sarcasm]
This is actually very true. I work in a high school, and software knowledge problems are from the educators 95% of the time. I have 10 computers in my classroom, and I installed OpenOffice on them when I was denied an office suite due to $$ restrictions. The students picked it up in 10 minutes (as an aside: Open Office also works great for opening corrupted powerpoint and excel files that office 2000 won't). During the summers, I train teachers how to use software, and it is FRUSTRATING when an adult looks at you as if you have strange jungle disease when you explain how to copy and paste.
Can schools make the switch to Linux? Yup, Doing it now. No need for MS Proxy or Border manager when E-Smith(the commercial site) offers a great solution.
Open Office / Star Office is the best thing that has come down the pipe for schools. If a student can learn to use these less expensive/just as robust software packages productively, then they can switch to using what ever MS office product that they may need to use on the job once they get out in the "Real World." What is wrong with education? I don't think computer illiterate teachers are the problem, but it fixing that certainly doesn't hurt.