to the "Let's get a real database" comment. It's nice to see such a good comment over MySQL by pros. Back in 2001/2, when I was considering to start a DB project for my own amusement, I heard almost nothing but bad things over MySQL by PostSQLers or Oraclers due to missing features though I went with it anyway.
BTW, it's not a slam on those others systems, but I feel the missing feautures debate usually gets out of proportion to actual use of said feautures by the average project by a small/mid-size business.
I don't see a sport taking off where it can't be played by the kids at home. All the popular sports have become popular from the bottom-up. The less accesible the sport is to an average person, the less popular it seems to watch.
This applies even to mainstream sports - Soccer is #1 in the world. You just need a cheap ball to play and some predefine goals which could be two rocks on the ground. In contrast, relatively mainstream sports like Hockey are still the least popular of the mainstream sports - a lot of equipment and the right conditions. I don't think it even makes a blip on the radar screen in Mexico while it's ultra-popular in Canada, and in the US, well it's in the middle:), there's a reason.
The only exception I can readily think of is Ice-skating, but that's because of the sheer skill and beauty displayed by the pros.
This sport has neither advantage - not accessible to be played by the common man nor will the pros be that good (where will they practice and for how long?).
It's an idea ahead of its time, lacking an audience once the novelty wears off.
While there's probably fewer than 1,000 different power adapters out there, laptops do not have a universal power adapter (translated to mean: everybody uses the same one). Just look at the lineup of available third-party adapters from firms like Targus, then remember that they're only selling for recent models from a handful of manufacturers.
Again, in the ideal world, we'd've standardized on one DC input spec (voltage, available current, plug type) for laptops and all sorts of other things using power bricks; in reality, they're a mess.
No, I'm not kidding.
Plug type: Well, I'm probably wrong, but I've seen only 1 type of input to the bricks, which allow for easy changing of 110V to several different 220V type plugs. As far as voltage, that could be adjusted by the brick, perhaps before delivery of said machine - I have a brick that adjusts to several different voltages depending on the plug, so I see no major hurdle there. Available current - well, you have me there - I'm no electrician or electrical engineer.
[quote]But finding 1,000,000 used notebooks may be a bigger challenge than building 1,000,000 new ones of these devices. Particularly when you factor in things like:
* Dealing with support specifications for 1,000 different varieties of used laptop
* Finding Linux drivers to work with 1,000 different varieties of used laptop
* Finding replacement batteries for 1,000 different varieties of used laptop[/quote]
You know what? I don't disagree with you much here although I'd like to point out that Ubuntu set their goals on Breezy Badger (or was it future Dapper Drake?) to be as out-of-the-box compatible as possible with a broad range of notebooks.
Also, some of the notebooks might come with Windows preloaded AND the windows CD, so it should be relatively compatible with it's own software.
I see the problems in trouble shooting all varieties of notebooks, but I see them pretty much F-ing up any type of install as people are apt to do and then calling their kids to fix it for them;D
As far as the poor of the world not wanting one, I doubt that also.
That wasn't really my point - I was wondering if a used notebook for $100 wouldn't deliver similiar performance that this device does but with a bigger more usuable screen. The only benefit is the handcrank, which capability could probably be added cheap (via mass production) as a second hand power adapters as most notebook have a universal power adapter AFAIK.
Notebook sales outpaced desktop sales this year for the first time. In 5-9 years, many owners might want to chuck them in favor of something better - so why not concentrate on an effort to get them donated? Tons of them sit in closets and they're still be usable.
My P233 is still usable (and a P500 notebook is definitely still usable) with a distro like Damn Small Linux. I would use it as a firewall, but I find a $75 router firewall is cheaper with the ethernet ports built in. I try it as a print server, but it doesn't have USB.
Thus, I'm willing to give it away to an agency that distributes it freely to those that need it, where ever (must look that up soon) in exchange for a small tax break. I'll probably feel the same in 8-10 years with the Powerbooks I have now - my time is too valuable to f*** with old hardware and the problems that arise doing half-assed workarounds to problems that more modern technology made simple. I imagine many people feel the same way.
I think the intel guy is correct. The screens are supposed to be around, what? 6-9.5 inches?
Unless, there's major resolution in that small space (say 1280x1024), that's unworkable today. I fired up an old P233 notebook, had a 14 inch screen, but had the same problem - the resolution was too small 800x600. Amazingly, most programs I used just wouldn't fit anymore in a screen this size. It was beyond agravating to constantly move the windows around to get to a certain button, or to scroll horizontally. Firefox fit, but again, most webpages had to be scrolled horizontally.
I applaud the project, but I have to wonder, isn't the answer to the call for $100 notebooks to simply buy used notebook? I'd imagine any post-2000 manufacture notebook would be good enough - and imagine the amount availble for the 100-200 price range on ebay? Including the number donated for the tax write-off.
Again, perhaps the effort will fill a niche, I just have to wonder if there is a performance difference between an old notebook and an ultra cheap one today. Because the small screens seems just too punishing. (I owned an Mac Color Classic once, 9" screen, yuck!)
I agree our troops should be praised for serving their country, and that those leading it are responsible for most of the fuck-ups.
But this strikes me everytime I read it. You say:
I'm about as left-wing, liberal and Democrat as it is possible to be. Read my posting history, it shows.
As if that is some vindication, or that being a leftwing democrat is automatically means you are correct where the rightwingers are wrong.
The biggest problem with this country are political parties, specifically the big two, promoting the idea that there are only "two sides" to a debate to choose from - theirs.
George Washington opposed political parties, saying that people should run on the platform of their convictions. Now I see his wisdom.
Both parties supported the Iraq War in the beginning. Some democrats still support it (Lieberman, IIRC).
It was the herd mentality that political parties promote that lead us to our situation today.
I blame both and will now only look toward no-party, 3rd party candidates.
Saying you are democrat and so implying that makes you 'right' now is as weak an excuse as Bush had for beginning the war.
LAST month, 62 members of the federal Coalition signed a letter to the Prime Minister calling for a ban on access to pornographic, violent and other inappropriate material via the internet.
The signatories believed the internet should be regulated in a similar way to other media. If adults wished to "opt in" to access the material then of course that would be their right, and they would have to apply for their right of access.
Does someone have a list of names of these idiots, so our Australian friends know who to rail against and vote out of office ASAP?
Even if IQ can determine Intelligence (which I find ridiculous if they ask culture or history related questions), it doesn't determine the quality of the interviewee. There are other things at play.
In a programmer, I'd rather have a competent person giving me their honest 75-85% effort than a certified genius giving me their half-assed 15-20% effort and spending the rest of their energy on the job in a haze, playing games, distracted by shit on the internet constantly, and blaming their misfortunes or failure to deliver on ADD, ADHD, and their parents.
I could imagine (if google succeeds and cuts out the middleman) that authors will eventually recognize that edited material sells better than unedited, and get it done on their own accord. Financing would be easier on the established author and for the non-established, perhaps the editor will seek out promising authors and help cultivate them in exchange for a commission on some books.
I'm sure great editors will be high demand.
And People will adapt to the business model as usual.
I dream of viable e-books to replace that f-ing 5 shelve of programming books in front of me every time I move. Or the 50 pounds of "bricks" I used to carry in my bookbag, daily to class........ And also when reading PDFed versions of books, squinting at a computer screen of my notebook balance on my knee, the bottom getting hot and it being too bright and too difficult to flip the pages.
The market is there. The hardware is almost there. Then it just has to be exploited.
The combination is quite deliberate to spread FUD.
If you ever watch the news on TV, they constantly want to portray the Internet as this newfangled thing (still) that vague and murky and might bite you at any second. I think that's simply out of touch for most people (actually I think the TV industry is just jealous) but the FUD must play well with some of them because the mechanics of it isn't so easy to grasp as say any other appliance, like a blender or how TV generally works.
Combined with the vogue word of this decade, terrorism, voila: a whole new genre for the powers that be to terrorize, er, I mean inform others with propaganda.
Many small publishers are probably scared that they will lose business and Google will become the prominent "publisher" for many smaller low circulation books.
Especially in hobbyist niches, many authors can't hope to make a profit off their work, instead it's done for prestige or the love of the hobby. They lose money by paying the publisher to print their books and spend years selling it for a little above cost.
Eventually cut these middlemen publishers out when authors recognize they can get away from them (maybe like artists and iTunes one day). Or perhaps not. People love hardcopies.
I wonder how this and the coming e-paper revolution would play out. Google could really become poised to become the biggest book publisher in the world, when after browsing the book online, for a fee with 75% going to the author, it can be downloaded to your 8.5"x11" e-paper you use to read all your stuff (effectively your library.)
Cut them off. If they don't want exposure, stop indexing them.
They'll come crawling back a month later anyway.
Group: Online content cannot remain free
It's not free, in exchange for my attention, you get to put up banner ads.
I believe many non-pron sites that started out as pay-for ended up offering a free way to view their sites - like Salon.com where you have to view a specific amount of ads before you get to the article. Or you can sign up and not deal with any of it - it's a great solution - choice to the consumer and win/win both ways.
The more a song gets downloaded, the more it would cost. Song by big-name bands would cost more, and lesser-known acts would cost less (with a minimum of 25 cents.)"
Okay, and why not 99 cents at a maximum, since there is a minimum. Because 25 cents per track might be expensive if you figure I can get a good range of used cds from $1-3.
Truly, if you are for market forces, putting an artificial minimum on it is contradicting your own argument. Also, the whole argument of supply and demand which this argument is based upon is on a nonexistant foundation - there is no "supply" in a product such as this - virtually unlimited amount of tracks can be downloaded with no "supply" diminished.
Making such a popularity method will only have people pay more $$$ for tracks when they come out and then those same tracks will be cheaper a short while later. While that exists in the real world to some extent, it's only going to give iTunes a bad rap for predatory pricing.
The model iTunes exists on should be economies of scale - where the more is downloaded, the cheaper per track (album) production costs is that each consumer has to bear. And those savings could be passed on if the consumer buys more tracks of the same album.
It's not the woman insisting, it's usually on the University's "suggestion." The women are further victimized if they believe campus police and the university court has anything close to their interest at heart.
I am not beyond bothered by this type of thing because it's that type of experience that one will find in the real world in any private institution, with your employer. The school is expensive and he is effectively paying a $14,000 fine (tuition) to repeat his semester which is completely ridiculous but perhaps he learned his lesson and that even free speech has its cost and consequences in that people will want to get back at you for this type of thing and perhaps saves him and a lot of other people (classmates) pain down the road if they learn the lesson about human nature. But it also makes the university professor and others look completely insecure with themselves.
The charges of "harassment, hazing or stalking" are dubious though and really bring up if they are punishing free speech. They should have just blown it off and perhaps the insulted Professor should have read his comments aloud in the class just to embarass the hell out of the offending student and make him sweat:D That would have been more appropriate.
What bothers me much more is when Private Universities try to keep women hush-hush about rape cases (against their top jocks) and bring that through their private courts instead of releasing it publicly. Violent cases like that should be illegalized because the outcome isn't justice, but a way for them to keep their best players on the field. Somewhat tangent to this case, but it needs to be said.
The federal government allocates money to states to pay for roads like this. States were paid federal taxpayer money to build the interstate system like the Turnpikes. So, regardless of gassing up in NJ or not, NJ gets money. Federal taxes are in every gallon of gas:
If they really need more local money, all a state has to do is be reasonable relative to it's neighbors in gas price.
The reason I say the PA turnpike is horrible is that I often take the N/S 476 turnpike to route 80 and take that to ohio (travel west a lot) and get to the same destination faster and without traffic that the 76 for a fraction of the price. I understand the 76 is more traveled, but the free 80 is in better condition, with a faster speedlimit, less traffic, and sometimes is three lanes! The expensive turnpike is still 2 lanes like the 50s (the company owned turnpike probably has the money to improve it but no incentive, no one is going to take route 80 if their final destination is in southern PA) and has road repairs all the time and is monitored like crazy by the state troopers.
I don't ever want to speed, but having to monitor your speedo all the time is a crappy solution. It only takes you looking up from the speedo to see a kid chasing a ball across the street infront of you once or twice before you'd really like a better solution.
If you are too stupid to drive, then don't. Please don't spread FUD and evangelize the "better solution" forced upon others. If it were a solution that people wanted, they would be paying car manufactures to have this OPTION in their new cars - not have it forced upon them.
Welcome to the future. I see this type of thinking in Europe all the time.
Actually, there they want to control what you think too (limited freedom of speech IIRC disguised as other laws) so it's not so bad here yet where they merely try to but can't.
What many people don't realize is that books like George Orwelle's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World" are slight rip-offs from Yevgeny Zamyatin 1920's "We" who was a communist but was disillusioned and had a falling out with the leaders (Lenin) and in turn was punished.
Like the other two books, this one had a futuristic setting and in this general genre of books, many people assumed it was a generic warning about the future and what it could turn into when in reality (that book) it was a contemporary look at (Russian) society with criticism not very subtly veiled with the futuristic plot. Even the title of 1984 was a playing with the reverse of publication year, 1948.
It's a warning that it can happen to any society anywhere regardless of technological level.
What's more dangerous is the type of herd mentality that goes along with the thinking. Bush and his administration, along with the media, has been sowing fear into the populace in one hand and offering the "solution" with another. Sadly, most politicians would try this, but I'm sad about how many people bought into it, especially in the mass hysteria that followed in 2001. Now that most people are accustomed to these measure, the government and ease further and further into this type of thing since it's "normal."
Ah, well, time to read some Thomas Jefferson to get me out of this funk.
I already pay "mileage-based road user fees," it's the tax placed on every gallon of gasoline. The government gets enough money to do build roads, repair roads, and then some.
I live in one of the few states with a toll highway (PA and it's crappy turnpike) and it sucks in all ways possible. I live in Europe part time, with the highest gas-taxes AND tolls. And it sucks.
This is not straightforward but double taxation (probably an opaque way to pay for more non-related crap) and a way to track you, no less. The millions of dollars spent on this are already a waste of money.
To the parent poster and the government, fuck off.
Unless you are programming or "forced" to deal with the command line (not likely), I don't see much major relearing going on moving from Linux to MS or the other way around when it comes to office apps (OO to MSOffice or the other way around) - it's mostly point and click with similiar interfaces. Also learning to use the web (since they have low internet penetration), which is pretty much the same experience for any GUI system.
Sometimes there is more relearning between versions of an App than there is between two different apps that serve the same purpose.
The other thing I imagine they can use is educational software - I should check the article if they deployed Ubuntu or Edubuntu.
I wonder if the free educational software in the OS world could provide schools lots of savings?
I wonder if this could lead to light weight gloves that could lead to "Minority Report" type control over objects in a GUI and perhaps a keyboard without a keyboard.
Generation whatever articles. It seems they always want to neatly compartmentalize people's behavior by their age group though I know 40+ years old totally connected to the net and that my teenage nephews who hardly go on or know anything about it.
The article seems to be treating all this stuff as new when much of it's been around for a good while. Next, they will be gushing about how people use newfangled email over snailmail. The only message here is that people tend to communicate with the best medium for them which is nothing new.
Regardless of cost, you still pay a MS tax. It could be said that Linux is more expensive simply because of clauses in OEM's contracts to MS to get those low prices.
Also, what about the cost of MS to schools or businesses that have site licenses that have to be renewed every so often?
And the whole "never worry about blue screens" really put the icing on the Lamecake. The whole blue screen argument is so 2002, and if that's what the anti-M$ bots are still spouting, they need to update their playbook.
I haven't used a new MS OS in quite a while, so you may be correct. Perhaps the red screen of death has replaced the blue screen of death, so you would be then quite correct:)
However, it's still a good point with older PCs that want to upgrade to a new OS without paying the MS price nor buying a new computer.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, maybe you should stop building on that swamp. Or at least get it drained....
I don't know what that has to do with using MySQL in my small personal project though?
I think I'll file this under other "misc" such as the "Don't go to Linux, you'll have higher TCO!" remarks by Microsoft.
At last, a camera so easy, even a monkey boy could operate it!
to the "Let's get a real database" comment. It's nice to see such a good comment over MySQL by pros. Back in 2001/2, when I was considering to start a DB project for my own amusement, I heard almost nothing but bad things over MySQL by PostSQLers or Oraclers due to missing features though I went with it anyway.
BTW, it's not a slam on those others systems, but I feel the missing feautures debate usually gets out of proportion to actual use of said feautures by the average project by a small/mid-size business.
Agreed.
I don't see a sport taking off where it can't be played by the kids at home. All the popular sports have become popular from the bottom-up. The less accesible the sport is to an average person, the less popular it seems to watch.
This applies even to mainstream sports - Soccer is #1 in the world. You just need a cheap ball to play and some predefine goals which could be two rocks on the ground. In contrast, relatively mainstream sports like Hockey are still the least popular of the mainstream sports - a lot of equipment and the right conditions. I don't think it even makes a blip on the radar screen in Mexico while it's ultra-popular in Canada, and in the US, well it's in the middle:), there's a reason.
The only exception I can readily think of is Ice-skating, but that's because of the sheer skill and beauty displayed by the pros.
This sport has neither advantage - not accessible to be played by the common man nor will the pros be that good (where will they practice and for how long?).
It's an idea ahead of its time, lacking an audience once the novelty wears off.
No, I'm not kidding.
Plug type: Well, I'm probably wrong, but I've seen only 1 type of input to the bricks, which allow for easy changing of 110V to several different 220V type plugs. As far as voltage, that could be adjusted by the brick, perhaps before delivery of said machine - I have a brick that adjusts to several different voltages depending on the plug, so I see no major hurdle there. Available current - well, you have me there - I'm no electrician or electrical engineer.
[quote]But finding 1,000,000 used notebooks may be a bigger challenge than building 1,000,000 new ones of these devices. Particularly when you factor in things like:
* Dealing with support specifications for 1,000 different varieties of used laptop
* Finding Linux drivers to work with 1,000 different varieties of used laptop
* Finding replacement batteries for 1,000 different varieties of used laptop[/quote]
You know what? I don't disagree with you much here although I'd like to point out that Ubuntu set their goals on Breezy Badger (or was it future Dapper Drake?) to be as out-of-the-box compatible as possible with a broad range of notebooks.
Also, some of the notebooks might come with Windows preloaded AND the windows CD, so it should be relatively compatible with it's own software.
I see the problems in trouble shooting all varieties of notebooks, but I see them pretty much F-ing up any type of install as people are apt to do and then calling their kids to fix it for them;D
That wasn't really my point - I was wondering if a used notebook for $100 wouldn't deliver similiar performance that this device does but with a bigger more usuable screen. The only benefit is the handcrank, which capability could probably be added cheap (via mass production) as a second hand power adapters as most notebook have a universal power adapter AFAIK.
Notebook sales outpaced desktop sales this year for the first time. In 5-9 years, many owners might want to chuck them in favor of something better - so why not concentrate on an effort to get them donated? Tons of them sit in closets and they're still be usable.
My P233 is still usable (and a P500 notebook is definitely still usable) with a distro like Damn Small Linux. I would use it as a firewall, but I find a $75 router firewall is cheaper with the ethernet ports built in. I try it as a print server, but it doesn't have USB.
Thus, I'm willing to give it away to an agency that distributes it freely to those that need it, where ever (must look that up soon) in exchange for a small tax break. I'll probably feel the same in 8-10 years with the Powerbooks I have now - my time is too valuable to f*** with old hardware and the problems that arise doing half-assed workarounds to problems that more modern technology made simple. I imagine many people feel the same way.
I think the intel guy is correct. The screens are supposed to be around, what? 6-9.5 inches?
Unless, there's major resolution in that small space (say 1280x1024), that's unworkable today. I fired up an old P233 notebook, had a 14 inch screen, but had the same problem - the resolution was too small 800x600. Amazingly, most programs I used just wouldn't fit anymore in a screen this size. It was beyond agravating to constantly move the windows around to get to a certain button, or to scroll horizontally. Firefox fit, but again, most webpages had to be scrolled horizontally.
I applaud the project, but I have to wonder, isn't the answer to the call for $100 notebooks to simply buy used notebook? I'd imagine any post-2000 manufacture notebook would be good enough - and imagine the amount availble for the 100-200 price range on ebay? Including the number donated for the tax write-off.
Again, perhaps the effort will fill a niche, I just have to wonder if there is a performance difference between an old notebook and an ultra cheap one today. Because the small screens seems just too punishing. (I owned an Mac Color Classic once, 9" screen, yuck!)
But this strikes me everytime I read it. You say:
As if that is some vindication, or that being a leftwing democrat is automatically means you are correct where the rightwingers are wrong.
The biggest problem with this country are political parties, specifically the big two, promoting the idea that there are only "two sides" to a debate to choose from - theirs.
George Washington opposed political parties, saying that people should run on the platform of their convictions. Now I see his wisdom.
Both parties supported the Iraq War in the beginning. Some democrats still support it (Lieberman, IIRC).
It was the herd mentality that political parties promote that lead us to our situation today.
I blame both and will now only look toward no-party, 3rd party candidates.
Saying you are democrat and so implying that makes you 'right' now is as weak an excuse as Bush had for beginning the war.
From TFA:
Does someone have a list of names of these idiots, so our Australian friends know who to rail against and vote out of office ASAP?
Even if IQ can determine Intelligence (which I find ridiculous if they ask culture or history related questions), it doesn't determine the quality of the interviewee. There are other things at play.
In a programmer, I'd rather have a competent person giving me their honest 75-85% effort than a certified genius giving me their half-assed 15-20% effort and spending the rest of their energy on the job in a haze, playing games, distracted by shit on the internet constantly, and blaming their misfortunes or failure to deliver on ADD, ADHD, and their parents.
There are more than enough of either type around.
I could imagine (if google succeeds and cuts out the middleman) that authors will eventually recognize that edited material sells better than unedited, and get it done on their own accord. Financing would be easier on the established author and for the non-established, perhaps the editor will seek out promising authors and help cultivate them in exchange for a commission on some books.
I'm sure great editors will be high demand.
And People will adapt to the business model as usual.
I dream of viable e-books to replace that f-ing 5 shelve of programming books in front of me every time I move. Or the 50 pounds of "bricks" I used to carry in my bookbag, daily to class........ And also when reading PDFed versions of books, squinting at a computer screen of my notebook balance on my knee, the bottom getting hot and it being too bright and too difficult to flip the pages.
The market is there. The hardware is almost there. Then it just has to be exploited.
The combination is quite deliberate to spread FUD.
If you ever watch the news on TV, they constantly want to portray the Internet as this newfangled thing (still) that vague and murky and might bite you at any second. I think that's simply out of touch for most people (actually I think the TV industry is just jealous) but the FUD must play well with some of them because the mechanics of it isn't so easy to grasp as say any other appliance, like a blender or how TV generally works.
Combined with the vogue word of this decade, terrorism, voila: a whole new genre for the powers that be to terrorize, er, I mean inform others with propaganda.
It's the same old shit (SOS) put in a new dress.
Many small publishers are probably scared that they will lose business and Google will become the prominent "publisher" for many smaller low circulation books.
Especially in hobbyist niches, many authors can't hope to make a profit off their work, instead it's done for prestige or the love of the hobby. They lose money by paying the publisher to print their books and spend years selling it for a little above cost.
Eventually cut these middlemen publishers out when authors recognize they can get away from them (maybe like artists and iTunes one day). Or perhaps not. People love hardcopies.
I wonder how this and the coming e-paper revolution would play out. Google could really become poised to become the biggest book publisher in the world, when after browsing the book online, for a fee with 75% going to the author, it can be downloaded to your 8.5"x11" e-paper you use to read all your stuff (effectively your library.)
They'll come crawling back a month later anyway.
It's not free, in exchange for my attention, you get to put up banner ads.
I believe many non-pron sites that started out as pay-for ended up offering a free way to view their sites - like Salon.com where you have to view a specific amount of ads before you get to the article. Or you can sign up and not deal with any of it - it's a great solution - choice to the consumer and win/win both ways.
Okay, and why not 99 cents at a maximum, since there is a minimum. Because 25 cents per track might be expensive if you figure I can get a good range of used cds from $1-3.
Truly, if you are for market forces, putting an artificial minimum on it is contradicting your own argument. Also, the whole argument of supply and demand which this argument is based upon is on a nonexistant foundation - there is no "supply" in a product such as this - virtually unlimited amount of tracks can be downloaded with no "supply" diminished.
Making such a popularity method will only have people pay more $$$ for tracks when they come out and then those same tracks will be cheaper a short while later. While that exists in the real world to some extent, it's only going to give iTunes a bad rap for predatory pricing.
The model iTunes exists on should be economies of scale - where the more is downloaded, the cheaper per track (album) production costs is that each consumer has to bear. And those savings could be passed on if the consumer buys more tracks of the same album.
It's not the woman insisting, it's usually on the University's "suggestion." The women are further victimized if they believe campus police and the university court has anything close to their interest at heart.
I am not beyond bothered by this type of thing because it's that type of experience that one will find in the real world in any private institution, with your employer. The school is expensive and he is effectively paying a $14,000 fine (tuition) to repeat his semester which is completely ridiculous but perhaps he learned his lesson and that even free speech has its cost and consequences in that people will want to get back at you for this type of thing and perhaps saves him and a lot of other people (classmates) pain down the road if they learn the lesson about human nature. But it also makes the university professor and others look completely insecure with themselves.
The charges of "harassment, hazing or stalking" are dubious though and really bring up if they are punishing free speech. They should have just blown it off and perhaps the insulted Professor should have read his comments aloud in the class just to embarass the hell out of the offending student and make him sweat:D That would have been more appropriate.
What bothers me much more is when Private Universities try to keep women hush-hush about rape cases (against their top jocks) and bring that through their private courts instead of releasing it publicly. Violent cases like that should be illegalized because the outcome isn't justice, but a way for them to keep their best players on the field. Somewhat tangent to this case, but it needs to be said.
The federal government allocates money to states to pay for roads like this. States were paid federal taxpayer money to build the interstate system like the Turnpikes. So, regardless of gassing up in NJ or not, NJ gets money. Federal taxes are in every gallon of gas:
S tates_of_America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_tax#United_
If they really need more local money, all a state has to do is be reasonable relative to it's neighbors in gas price.
The reason I say the PA turnpike is horrible is that I often take the N/S 476 turnpike to route 80 and take that to ohio (travel west a lot) and get to the same destination faster and without traffic that the 76 for a fraction of the price. I understand the 76 is more traveled, but the free 80 is in better condition, with a faster speedlimit, less traffic, and sometimes is three lanes! The expensive turnpike is still 2 lanes like the 50s (the company owned turnpike probably has the money to improve it but no incentive, no one is going to take route 80 if their final destination is in southern PA) and has road repairs all the time and is monitored like crazy by the state troopers.
If you are too stupid to drive, then don't. Please don't spread FUD and evangelize the "better solution" forced upon others. If it were a solution that people wanted, they would be paying car manufactures to have this OPTION in their new cars - not have it forced upon them.
Welcome to the future. I see this type of thinking in Europe all the time.
Actually, there they want to control what you think too (limited freedom of speech IIRC disguised as other laws) so it's not so bad here yet where they merely try to but can't.
What many people don't realize is that books like George Orwelle's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World" are slight rip-offs from Yevgeny Zamyatin 1920's "We" who was a communist but was disillusioned and had a falling out with the leaders (Lenin) and in turn was punished.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel)
Like the other two books, this one had a futuristic setting and in this general genre of books, many people assumed it was a generic warning about the future and what it could turn into when in reality (that book) it was a contemporary look at (Russian) society with criticism not very subtly veiled with the futuristic plot. Even the title of 1984 was a playing with the reverse of publication year, 1948.
It's a warning that it can happen to any society anywhere regardless of technological level.
What's more dangerous is the type of herd mentality that goes along with the thinking. Bush and his administration, along with the media, has been sowing fear into the populace in one hand and offering the "solution" with another. Sadly, most politicians would try this, but I'm sad about how many people bought into it, especially in the mass hysteria that followed in 2001. Now that most people are accustomed to these measure, the government and ease further and further into this type of thing since it's "normal."
Ah, well, time to read some Thomas Jefferson to get me out of this funk.
I already pay "mileage-based road user fees," it's the tax placed on every gallon of gasoline. The government gets enough money to do build roads, repair roads, and then some.
I live in one of the few states with a toll highway (PA and it's crappy turnpike) and it sucks in all ways possible. I live in Europe part time, with the highest gas-taxes AND tolls. And it sucks.
This is not straightforward but double taxation (probably an opaque way to pay for more non-related crap) and a way to track you, no less. The millions of dollars spent on this are already a waste of money.
To the parent poster and the government, fuck off.
Unless you are programming or "forced" to deal with the command line (not likely), I don't see much major relearing going on moving from Linux to MS or the other way around when it comes to office apps (OO to MSOffice or the other way around) - it's mostly point and click with similiar interfaces. Also learning to use the web (since they have low internet penetration), which is pretty much the same experience for any GUI system.
Sometimes there is more relearning between versions of an App than there is between two different apps that serve the same purpose.
The other thing I imagine they can use is educational software - I should check the article if they deployed Ubuntu or Edubuntu.
I wonder if the free educational software in the OS world could provide schools lots of savings?
I wonder if this could lead to light weight gloves that could lead to "Minority Report" type control over objects in a GUI and perhaps a keyboard without a keyboard.
Generation whatever articles. It seems they always want to neatly compartmentalize people's behavior by their age group though I know 40+ years old totally connected to the net and that my teenage nephews who hardly go on or know anything about it.
The article seems to be treating all this stuff as new when much of it's been around for a good while. Next, they will be gushing about how people use newfangled email over snailmail. The only message here is that people tend to communicate with the best medium for them which is nothing new.
Also, what about the cost of MS to schools or businesses that have site licenses that have to be renewed every so often?
I haven't used a new MS OS in quite a while, so you may be correct. Perhaps the red screen of death has replaced the blue screen of death, so you would be then quite correct:)
However, it's still a good point with older PCs that want to upgrade to a new OS without paying the MS price nor buying a new computer.