WiFi isn't a problem but a symptom
on
Professors vs. WiFi
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· Score: 2, Interesting
We have WiFi in some, but not all of buildings at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My finding has been that professors generally don't have to compete with wireless internet, regardless of how good their lectures are. The students who are proned to pay attention and take notes will do so with or without distractions, and those who are a bit less, err, academically interested will generally find some other way to pass the time, whether this involves a different distraction, sleeping, or not attending the class at all.
Professors who lecture generally only have this problem with students who don't care anyway. If the class involves participation, then the student doesn't have an option to goof off. I found that in my introductory computer science courses, which were not attendance mandatory, were almost completely free of WiFi users because the only ones who were attending were those who needed to learn the material, or otherwise enjoyed the lectures. (I fell into the latter category - there's a reason my COMP114 professor was North Carolina Professor of the Year.)
The bottom line, WiFi misuse in the classroom is not a problem, but an indicator of a deficiancy with the way the class is taught.
Many people in my dorm depend completely upon their computers for communications with the outside world. I don't even have a phone, to say nothing of a television.
At least your college is honest about it. I attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and have found they do the exact same thing. There's a program out there called Direct Connect that still works for me, and if it doesn't work for you, there's still the old school methods of IRC and FTPs. On the other hand, if you have a legitimate use for the bandwidth, I've found most colleges are willing to bend.
I myself am a pretty strong advocate of privacy, but I do think that these boxen would prove beneficial if used properly. I would assume the Slashdot community to be slightly more intelligent than the rest of the world as a whole. And making another vague assumption, stupid people are more prone to wreck their cars. So, if anyone is to benefit from the tracking of cars, it would be us, those that are slightly less likely to be the cause of accidents.
Take two, one that is sure to come up sooner or later - how long before someone figures out a way to hack their box and input it with signals indicating they never speed, accelerate or decelerate too quickly, or anything else for that matter? The technology itself seems likely to be hacked.
Take three, would there be any LEGITIMATE way to make POSITIVE use from data obtained? Not always simply to scold bad drivers or find who is at fault in an accident, but to provide advice to drivers as to how they may improve their driving? Or perhaps seeing how your style of driving correlates to longterm vehicle damage or fuel consumption?
All are just thoughts, and hopefully discussion openers.
Also, let's consider this. A single bit, on or off, it doesn't matter, is perhaps the most expensive piece of data, now that Microsoft has patented Ones, Zeros.
The Windows XP Professional CD weighs in at 512,342,016 bytes. According to the Microsoft site, it retails at $299.00 US. This is an approximate cost of $0.00000058359453385138727330143464165937 per byte. Cheap, perhaps? Consider this. Divide this by the cost most people pay for Linux or other free operating systems, and you'll find that Windows is more expensive by a magnitude approaching infinity.
All of this talk of Tron, and not one person mentioned http://bomns.sf.net, my site where you can download two DOS versions of Tron with source code and all! Gee, with the seven hits we get every month, you'd think that EVERYONE would know about it by now.
I'm primarily a Windows user who advocates Linux, because it's where I'd rather be. I end up in Windows most of the time because I live in one of those remote, underdeveloped places that don't have their own ISPs, and I'm stuck using a major provider for Internet Access who does not provide Linux versions of their dialup software. However, I still end up using Linux for a longer part of my day than most Windows users use their OS. (I do most of my web design, desktop publishing, and programming in KDE) But I'm only counted as a Windows user!
I think there are a lot of other Linux users out there in my situation, and that it's another possibility that should be considered before saying Linux has practically no home user marketshare.
Slashdot Mirror
We have WiFi in some, but not all of buildings at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My finding has been that professors generally don't have to compete with wireless internet, regardless of how good their lectures are. The students who are proned to pay attention and take notes will do so with or without distractions, and those who are a bit less, err, academically interested will generally find some other way to pass the time, whether this involves a different distraction, sleeping, or not attending the class at all. Professors who lecture generally only have this problem with students who don't care anyway. If the class involves participation, then the student doesn't have an option to goof off. I found that in my introductory computer science courses, which were not attendance mandatory, were almost completely free of WiFi users because the only ones who were attending were those who needed to learn the material, or otherwise enjoyed the lectures. (I fell into the latter category - there's a reason my COMP114 professor was North Carolina Professor of the Year.) The bottom line, WiFi misuse in the classroom is not a problem, but an indicator of a deficiancy with the way the class is taught.
Redundant
Now, the real question comes when you consider, is it fair to mod ME down?
Many people in my dorm depend completely upon their computers for communications with the outside world. I don't even have a phone, to say nothing of a television.
At least your college is honest about it. I attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and have found they do the exact same thing. There's a program out there called Direct Connect that still works for me, and if it doesn't work for you, there's still the old school methods of IRC and FTPs. On the other hand, if you have a legitimate use for the bandwidth, I've found most colleges are willing to bend.
I myself am a pretty strong advocate of privacy, but I do think that these boxen would prove beneficial if used properly. I would assume the Slashdot community to be slightly more intelligent than the rest of the world as a whole. And making another vague assumption, stupid people are more prone to wreck their cars. So, if anyone is to benefit from the tracking of cars, it would be us, those that are slightly less likely to be the cause of accidents. Take two, one that is sure to come up sooner or later - how long before someone figures out a way to hack their box and input it with signals indicating they never speed, accelerate or decelerate too quickly, or anything else for that matter? The technology itself seems likely to be hacked. Take three, would there be any LEGITIMATE way to make POSITIVE use from data obtained? Not always simply to scold bad drivers or find who is at fault in an accident, but to provide advice to drivers as to how they may improve their driving? Or perhaps seeing how your style of driving correlates to longterm vehicle damage or fuel consumption? All are just thoughts, and hopefully discussion openers.
Regardless of your opinion on et life, one thing is certain. My SETI@Home team is better than yours. ;)
> Funny, I bet you could buy a copy in Munich for a hundred grand if you knew where to look. ;)
Also, let's consider this. A single bit, on or off, it doesn't matter, is perhaps the most expensive piece of data, now that Microsoft has patented Ones, Zeros.
The Windows XP Professional CD weighs in at 512,342,016 bytes. According to the Microsoft site, it retails at $299.00 US. This is an approximate cost of $0.00000058359453385138727330143464165937 per byte. Cheap, perhaps? Consider this. Divide this by the cost most people pay for Linux or other free operating systems, and you'll find that Windows is more expensive by a magnitude approaching infinity.
Shall I begin the browser war here?
All of this talk of Tron, and not one person mentioned http://bomns.sf.net, my site where you can download two DOS versions of Tron with source code and all! Gee, with the seven hits we get every month, you'd think that EVERYONE would know about it by now.
I'm primarily a Windows user who advocates Linux, because it's where I'd rather be. I end up in Windows most of the time because I live in one of those remote, underdeveloped places that don't have their own ISPs, and I'm stuck using a major provider for Internet Access who does not provide Linux versions of their dialup software. However, I still end up using Linux for a longer part of my day than most Windows users use their OS. (I do most of my web design, desktop publishing, and programming in KDE) But I'm only counted as a Windows user! I think there are a lot of other Linux users out there in my situation, and that it's another possibility that should be considered before saying Linux has practically no home user marketshare.