That's exactly what I did after reading the article-- ran off to Newegg to check if the manufacturing variable is being directly correlated to sales prices... and it is!
This is great news for those who bought new computers (or built new systems) over the Holidays and didn't max out the RAM due to the price. I have a couple people who I advised in December about buying full systems that I need to contact now to say, "You know how I said that RAM prices fluctuate significantly with natural disasters, political strife, etc.? Well, the prices are down due to over-production and it's time to max out that system you skimped on! Make that computer a 5-year investment!"
"Google's next big challenge, which is dealing with the spammers it helped create."
Except, "No." Creating a profitable system does not mean one helped to create policy-infringers, law-breakers, and exploiters. If we accepted that irrationality, we could say that young, pretty boys and girls create child rapists, cars with windows spontaneously generate car thieves, and political systems create thieving dirty politicians. But that's not true.
Exploiters and criminals are created through a combination of their own high expectations, the lack of opportunity (by their standards), and their lack of ethical conviction. They only act opportunistically or impulsively on exploitable situations.
You see, Frankie Jr., THIS is why you learns your maths. So that when you're just some guy working to put a roof over your family's heads, yous can look at some numbers, do some additions, and be immortalized in the fucking cosmos for just being curious little shit.
Now go do your math homework.
--- Really though... this is why you learn math even if you're not going to be a rocket scientist.
You know, I just spoke to her about those devices. She says she'd hate the clock (because it might actually put her in check), but then noted that the timed munchy safe would just convince her to binge.
I would actually pay for both of those devices. Not for myself, but for my S/O who, of all things, lacks "will" and "drive" for most things in life. She's the kind of person who would buy the silver-bullet placebos I described without fail.
She took up knitting and invested in a massive amount of yarn (high quality stuff on bargain when she could find it) with the assumption that the investment will guilt her into using it. I'm pretty sure she's quit 80% of her attempted projects since her start.
I'm pretty sure she'd have been fired from her job (despite her being indispensable) for her chronic tardiness if I was not one who subscribed to the philosophy that says: "There are only two times: Early and Late. There is no 'on time'."
We can and do manage our behavior, but we also like to have some sort of silver-bullet placebo. It's the only way some people can convince themselves that there will be results for some exertion of effort.
It's particularly bad, though, when we make major purchases under the pretense that we will guilt ourselves into conforming to a regiment or else risk wasting a significant investment. Bikes, gym memberships, new running shoes, etc -- these are all things that most people buy as a means to shift a desire from second level (I want to want to...) to first level (I want to...).
In the end, people just stop using those crutches (for the most part) and recede to prior, bad habits.
... rampant blogosphere speculation about everything. Just like the year before it.
year of...
Year Of...
YEAR OF!!!!
Holy crap, get over it! Stuff will happen next year. Some of that stuff will be expected. Of that expected stuff, some will live live up to expectations while the other will not. And there will be surprises!
Indeed, your standard would be well-suited for a composition course, but given the topic of the article (state exam papers), I think the analytical and structural elements are more important. They are the parts, after all, that are universal to all types of writing.
If you have the slow progression of communism from capitalism like Europe the countries go broke before they can even make their way through one major economic downturn. Oh, and Europe is now dialing back their socialism since they already ran out of other peoples money.
Except no...
European Democratic Socialism is failing because they're trying to have their cake and eat it, too. They want to have high minimum standards of living AND have high potential for high profits. Their citizenry needs to understand that if they want the world's best security blanket, they have to give up a good deal of their earnings for not only the greater good, but as insurance against their own future failure.
In America, most people would rather maximize the potential for super high profits-- even if that potential remains infinitesimally small. Everyone here actually believes they have a chance to become a multi-billionaire and thus choose to do whatever it takes to preserve the powers of the wealthy just in case they ever get to join their ranks. They delude themselves about the probability and are actually willing to vote against their own well-being to preserve that dream (see: Tea Partiers and poor Republicans).
Eventually, people will figure out that sustainable economics favors the "high minimum standard" over the "highest potential profits" (since "highest potential profits" encourages criminal behavior). When they do, they'll clamp down on using the stock market as a rigged gambling system, hold corporations accountable to their national and state taxes, and move toward realistic Social Democracy-- but it won't be for quite a while. When shows like "Deal or No Deal" die off, I think we'll have a chance.
Just weight the grading system appropriately. Proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation is PART of writing. Make sure those who are able to construct sentences, spell, and punctuate at or above their level get sufficient credit for the multiple years of effort, but don't let minor errors stand in the way of a high grade on content.
60% Content (Response to question, validity of argument, validity of examples, complexity of argument) 20% Structure (Uses sentences and paragraphs to organize response. Uses topic and conclusion sentences and paragraphs.) 10% Grammar 5% Spelling (-1% for every 3 spelling errors, 5% cap of loss) 5% Punctuation (-1% for every 3 punctuation errors, 5% cap of loss)
Welcome to the real world of educational evaluation. This is why standardized testing cannot replace subjective reading and review. If you want to get correct results, you have to put in the effort.
If you just let students use spell-checkers, they're never going to bother to learn the damn words and you'll breed a generation of people who don't care about the words they use or how they use them. Then communication suffers overall. -- There's a reason we put in the effort.
It's turned out well for those that are doing advanced math for whom there are multiple simple calculations culminating in the final data set required to complete the tested conceptual exercise.
It's worked out quite poorly for students who actually need to learn and master multiplication, division, consistently correct addition and subtraction.
I don't think people are surprised, but very let down. "Expect the worst, hope for the best", right? Everyone expects corporate money and influence to win, but hoped nonetheless that this guy they elected would take a stand or that the internet would be a bastion of relative freedom.
Ya, I use LibreOffice (having just made the move from OpenOffice) at home. I'd actually buy and use MS Office if it was worth what they charged. I'd pay $30 in a heartbeat for a legal installation of Word, Excel, Powerpoint. It's just good to have when dealing with other people's documents or when troubleshooting other people's software illiteracy.
But I'm certainly not paying $100+ for 3 programs that are now so effectively duplicated.
I'd love for school districts to (1) have actual computer science programs at the high school level AND (2) Computer Competence programs that go beyond typing and recognizing the general use of File, Edit, View, and Help menus.
Let's actually teach them some more in depth stuff about computers.
(2) Parts of the computer (updated for modern and continuing specs) and standards. Motherboard, CPU, Heatsink, PCI, PCIe, AGP (may as well), hard drive, flash storage, RAM, (sound integrated and discrete), video (integrated and discrete), power supply, etc.
(3) Software vocabulary: Open source, shareware, freeware, free-to-try, how to decide which software to use and which distributor is reputable.
(4) Home networks, routers, modems, wireless standards
(5) Relevant law (it's just safer this way) including recycling, IP, interstate commerce, etc.
This is so perfectly said. My original comment spurning this diversion thread was actually marked -1 and this needs a +5 all the way.
Four planes hijacked in one day tanked the market and shook the nation enough to go into its current state of docile paranoia. If an ICBM hit the continental US, all hell would break lose.
I can't wait to get a tablet. My current computing device roundup:
Desktop Computer -- Dual monitors for doing majors tasks; Power for gaming, etc.
Home Theater PC -- cheapo PC with mini-projector to make a ~50" projection and do group web-surfing. Primary source of video entertainment. Netbook -- Running Ubuntu netbook remix. It's the "portable computer" of the household. When not needed outside, it's used how a tablet or e-book reader would be on the couch. Used for websurfing, light office work (very, very rarely), reading books. Laptop -- Too big and bulky in comparison to a netbook. Has been retired to bedroom so I can flip it open and listen to something while I fall asleep. Cell Phone -- Qwerty keyboard, bad camera, bad MP3 player, good phone, crap video recorder. Creative MP3 player -- great MP3 sound, crap video, meh interface, plenty of storage, good sound, un-utilized smartphone-ish things like limited web access Canon camera -- Nothing impressive. 4 years old. It's a point-and-shoot digital camera that also takes bad video.
I want to fully retire my netbook, laptop, and not need a smartphone for mobile webaccess. I want a tablet PC to do what those would.
(I also want a phone that's just a good phone, good camera, and SMS texter with a qwerty slide out, and MP3 player with a good interface, and none of the internet connectivity crud. That would knock my MP3 player and camera off my gadget line up, too. Eventually, I just want to have a Desktop, Tablet, Cell phone.)
I'd +1 this if my mod points didn't rot yesterday.
We have a great variety of words so that we can explain a great variety of things. Why not use them appropriately?
I'd pay for a yearly subscription that would entitle me to full access. What full and free access would be is up to them, but I'd happily throw down a $5-10 fee. Of course, adding in a fee system adds cost in and of itself, so it's not a fix-all solution.
I don't like the idea of ads, either. Wikipedia is distracting enough with all its links distracting me from my original research goal which was...
Oh ya, so flash, gif, audio, and video ads would just make it worse. If they could allow some charity/non-profit banner ads only (Red Cross, Child's Play, etc.) with a guarantee of no flashiness, I could support it.
Yay... $1.5 million per year for 4 years per project. I sure hope they're really promising because that's much time or money to do anything major like find a means to turn biomass into a gasoline substitute that would utilize all the current fuel line infrastructure.
Good luck, guys!
Slashdot Mirror
That's exactly what I did after reading the article-- ran off to Newegg to check if the manufacturing variable is being directly correlated to sales prices... and it is!
This is great news for those who bought new computers (or built new systems) over the Holidays and didn't max out the RAM due to the price. I have a couple people who I advised in December about buying full systems that I need to contact now to say, "You know how I said that RAM prices fluctuate significantly with natural disasters, political strife, etc.? Well, the prices are down due to over-production and it's time to max out that system you skimped on! Make that computer a 5-year investment!"
"Google's next big challenge, which is dealing with the spammers it helped create."
Except, "No." Creating a profitable system does not mean one helped to create policy-infringers, law-breakers, and exploiters. If we accepted that irrationality, we could say that young, pretty boys and girls create child rapists, cars with windows spontaneously generate car thieves, and political systems create thieving dirty politicians. But that's not true.
Exploiters and criminals are created through a combination of their own high expectations, the lack of opportunity (by their standards), and their lack of ethical conviction. They only act opportunistically or impulsively on exploitable situations.
You see, Frankie Jr., THIS is why you learns your maths. So that when you're just some guy working to put a roof over your family's heads, yous can look at some numbers, do some additions, and be immortalized in the fucking cosmos for just being curious little shit.
Now go do your math homework.
--- Really though... this is why you learn math even if you're not going to be a rocket scientist.
You know, I just spoke to her about those devices. She says she'd hate the clock (because it might actually put her in check), but then noted that the timed munchy safe would just convince her to binge.
>.
He's just giving examples of what people frequently regret, I think... not prescribing appropriate human lifestyle choices.
(Yes, children are frequently regrets as infrequently as parents like to admit it.)
I would actually pay for both of those devices. Not for myself, but for my S/O who, of all things, lacks "will" and "drive" for most things in life. She's the kind of person who would buy the silver-bullet placebos I described without fail.
She took up knitting and invested in a massive amount of yarn (high quality stuff on bargain when she could find it) with the assumption that the investment will guilt her into using it. I'm pretty sure she's quit 80% of her attempted projects since her start.
I'm pretty sure she'd have been fired from her job (despite her being indispensable) for her chronic tardiness if I was not one who subscribed to the philosophy that says: "There are only two times: Early and Late. There is no 'on time'."
We can and do manage our behavior, but we also like to have some sort of silver-bullet placebo. It's the only way some people can convince themselves that there will be results for some exertion of effort.
It's particularly bad, though, when we make major purchases under the pretense that we will guilt ourselves into conforming to a regiment or else risk wasting a significant investment. Bikes, gym memberships, new running shoes, etc -- these are all things that most people buy as a means to shift a desire from second level (I want to want to...) to first level (I want to...).
In the end, people just stop using those crutches (for the most part) and recede to prior, bad habits.
Bloggers and their new/end-of year speculations that have no beneficial effect on either product will win.
... rampant blogosphere speculation about everything. Just like the year before it.
year of...
Year Of...
YEAR OF!!!!
Holy crap, get over it! Stuff will happen next year. Some of that stuff will be expected. Of that expected stuff, some will live live up to expectations while the other will not. And there will be surprises!
Indeed, your standard would be well-suited for a composition course, but given the topic of the article (state exam papers), I think the analytical and structural elements are more important. They are the parts, after all, that are universal to all types of writing.
If you have the slow progression of communism from capitalism like Europe the countries go broke before they can even make their way through one major economic downturn. Oh, and Europe is now dialing back their socialism since they already ran out of other peoples money.
Except no...
European Democratic Socialism is failing because they're trying to have their cake and eat it, too. They want to have high minimum standards of living AND have high potential for high profits. Their citizenry needs to understand that if they want the world's best security blanket, they have to give up a good deal of their earnings for not only the greater good, but as insurance against their own future failure.
In America, most people would rather maximize the potential for super high profits-- even if that potential remains infinitesimally small. Everyone here actually believes they have a chance to become a multi-billionaire and thus choose to do whatever it takes to preserve the powers of the wealthy just in case they ever get to join their ranks. They delude themselves about the probability and are actually willing to vote against their own well-being to preserve that dream (see: Tea Partiers and poor Republicans).
Eventually, people will figure out that sustainable economics favors the "high minimum standard" over the "highest potential profits" (since "highest potential profits" encourages criminal behavior). When they do, they'll clamp down on using the stock market as a rigged gambling system, hold corporations accountable to their national and state taxes, and move toward realistic Social Democracy-- but it won't be for quite a while. When shows like "Deal or No Deal" die off, I think we'll have a chance.
Just weight the grading system appropriately. Proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation is PART of writing. Make sure those who are able to construct sentences, spell, and punctuate at or above their level get sufficient credit for the multiple years of effort, but don't let minor errors stand in the way of a high grade on content.
60% Content (Response to question, validity of argument, validity of examples, complexity of argument)
20% Structure (Uses sentences and paragraphs to organize response. Uses topic and conclusion sentences and paragraphs.)
10% Grammar
5% Spelling (-1% for every 3 spelling errors, 5% cap of loss)
5% Punctuation (-1% for every 3 punctuation errors, 5% cap of loss)
Welcome to the real world of educational evaluation. This is why standardized testing cannot replace subjective reading and review. If you want to get correct results, you have to put in the effort.
If you just let students use spell-checkers, they're never going to bother to learn the damn words and you'll breed a generation of people who don't care about the words they use or how they use them. Then communication suffers overall. -- There's a reason we put in the effort.
It's turned out well for those that are doing advanced math for whom there are multiple simple calculations culminating in the final data set required to complete the tested conceptual exercise.
It's worked out quite poorly for students who actually need to learn and master multiplication, division, consistently correct addition and subtraction.
How is it funding itself? Do they have $20 and continually re-donate it to their organization?
I don't think people are surprised, but very let down. "Expect the worst, hope for the best", right? Everyone expects corporate money and influence to win, but hoped nonetheless that this guy they elected would take a stand or that the internet would be a bastion of relative freedom.
No one likes have having his hopes crushed.
Ya, I use LibreOffice (having just made the move from OpenOffice) at home. I'd actually buy and use MS Office if it was worth what they charged. I'd pay $30 in a heartbeat for a legal installation of Word, Excel, Powerpoint. It's just good to have when dealing with other people's documents or when troubleshooting other people's software illiteracy.
But I'm certainly not paying $100+ for 3 programs that are now so effectively duplicated.
I'd love for school districts to (1) have actual computer science programs at the high school level AND (2) Computer Competence programs that go beyond typing and recognizing the general use of File, Edit, View, and Help menus.
Let's actually teach them some more in depth stuff about computers.
(1) Safe Websurfing -- Cookies, temporary files, malware/virus avoidance and damage control.
(2) Parts of the computer (updated for modern and continuing specs) and standards. Motherboard, CPU, Heatsink, PCI, PCIe, AGP (may as well), hard drive, flash storage, RAM, (sound integrated and discrete), video (integrated and discrete), power supply, etc.
(3) Software vocabulary: Open source, shareware, freeware, free-to-try, how to decide which software to use and which distributor is reputable.
(4) Home networks, routers, modems, wireless standards
(5) Relevant law (it's just safer this way) including recycling, IP, interstate commerce, etc.
This is so perfectly said. My original comment spurning this diversion thread was actually marked -1 and this needs a +5 all the way. Four planes hijacked in one day tanked the market and shook the nation enough to go into its current state of docile paranoia. If an ICBM hit the continental US, all hell would break lose.
I can't wait to get a tablet. My current computing device roundup:
Desktop Computer -- Dual monitors for doing majors tasks; Power for gaming, etc.
Home Theater PC -- cheapo PC with mini-projector to make a ~50" projection and do group web-surfing. Primary source of video entertainment.
Netbook -- Running Ubuntu netbook remix. It's the "portable computer" of the household. When not needed outside, it's used how a tablet or e-book reader would be on the couch. Used for websurfing, light office work (very, very rarely), reading books.
Laptop -- Too big and bulky in comparison to a netbook. Has been retired to bedroom so I can flip it open and listen to something while I fall asleep.
Cell Phone -- Qwerty keyboard, bad camera, bad MP3 player, good phone, crap video recorder.
Creative MP3 player -- great MP3 sound, crap video, meh interface, plenty of storage, good sound, un-utilized smartphone-ish things like limited web access
Canon camera -- Nothing impressive. 4 years old. It's a point-and-shoot digital camera that also takes bad video.
I want to fully retire my netbook, laptop, and not need a smartphone for mobile webaccess. I want a tablet PC to do what those would.
(I also want a phone that's just a good phone, good camera, and SMS texter with a qwerty slide out, and MP3 player with a good interface, and none of the internet connectivity crud. That would knock my MP3 player and camera off my gadget line up, too. Eventually, I just want to have a Desktop, Tablet, Cell phone.)
Ya... but they actually have WMD. America won't attempt a war it actually thinks it can lose.
why?
I'd +1 this if my mod points didn't rot yesterday. We have a great variety of words so that we can explain a great variety of things. Why not use them appropriately?
I'd pay for a yearly subscription that would entitle me to full access. What full and free access would be is up to them, but I'd happily throw down a $5-10 fee. Of course, adding in a fee system adds cost in and of itself, so it's not a fix-all solution. I don't like the idea of ads, either. Wikipedia is distracting enough with all its links distracting me from my original research goal which was... Oh ya, so flash, gif, audio, and video ads would just make it worse. If they could allow some charity/non-profit banner ads only (Red Cross, Child's Play, etc.) with a guarantee of no flashiness, I could support it.
Yay... $1.5 million per year for 4 years per project. I sure hope they're really promising because that's much time or money to do anything major like find a means to turn biomass into a gasoline substitute that would utilize all the current fuel line infrastructure. Good luck, guys!
Access to personal records = $$ Marketing = $$ Understanding influence dynamics = $$ They're just selling info and access.