At one of the best Technical / Engineering schools which I attend, C's are given out just as frequently as the A's and B's. It is not uncommon for a class average to be ~70 in courses such as University Physics, or higher math. Of course, with liberal arts courses, if you do the work, you get your A.
I can't understand how they can't hold students to the same level of success across the board though. I have friends who do nothing, get 4.0's and are in a major that is regarded as being simple (read: IT). Then again there are the engineers (read: me) who need to be perfect in everything they do, or get low grades. You say they need to be correct, but what about doctors? What about people who operate things the engineers create? Don't they need to be held accountable for their accuracy?
Maybe I'm biased, in fact I know I am, yet it seems as if something needs to change in this system.
I've a friend who is a certified welder, his brother is a plumber, and the friend was working at the time as an electrician.
You put all those into one, and come up with one hell of a weapon. PVC is not good to use because it will shatter, so they made their latest out of ABS. My friend fabricated a nice little ignitor out of a sparker/toggle switch combination, and sharpened the end of the ABS barrel carefully.
Next, a potato was inserted or a green tomato, and plunged down just to the right level. Finally he would take it over to his welding tanks, put in quite a bit of Acetylene, and just a tiny touch of Oxygen. Someone skilled in chemical reaction will know its the oxygen that will really cause the combustion, not the acetylene alone. Finally we would screw the end shut and let'er rip.
I must say, we certainally had fun with that thing, we fired a green tomato *through* a piece of three-quarter inch fiberglass. (the tomatos are much softer than the potatos, and thus tend to rice better) Firing a potato directly at a fence post would instantly rice the potato, and there would be flecks of it all over, but we were on a farm, so we didn't care.
The best part of all however was launching it at the appropriate angle, and just letting it fly. Since we used to launch from a place which we'd also use as a firing range I remember aproximate distances, so we were around one hundered-fifty yards away from the woods. You launch the gun at approximately a 40 degree angle, and just watch the potato disappear over the trees still angled upwards and rising.
Now, mind you, we are older and wiser now, but back then we did use some precautions which I would recommend to anyone even thinking about such an experiment: 1. Please, for the love of god, go someplace where someone can't be hurt. We were firing into a forest many miles long, which we knew nobody would be in at the time. 2. Please, don't stand behind, or lean over the gun. The "T" used to create it has three holes of course, the top and back with stoppers in them, and the front with the barrel, if one of those would fly off in an explosion, I wouldn't want to be in its path. The best way to fire these are to have one person hold it slinghandedly to their side firmly with two hands, and then another to flick the ignitor. 3. Please realize that it is a dangerous weapon, not much unlike a cannon. It can do real damage, and its a lot of fun used correctly, but as the story has quoted, it can do a lot of damage as well.
Cedar Point is certainally a great park. They care for their employees, and run a great place. I have had much experience with many people involved with the park over the years, living just a stones throw away.
I did some computer work in the past for the head mainframe analyst there a while back. I saw some pictures from their data rooms back in the mainframe days, as well as some more current ones. It certainally is an impressive sight, especially being an amusement park.
The park is built in fact on a peninsula, not an island, so they have more room then you would think to expand, as well as hotels, and marinas which can be used for future expansion.
They outdid themselves with the Millennium Force in my opinion. There is nothing like watching your favorite lady (or man) in the seat next to you as you scream down a 310 foot drop in the front seat.
I can only hope this coming attraction will hold a candle to its predecessors. Cedar Point has several methods these days to cut down on the time to wait in line, such as hand stamps, and such, for those early to arrive. Hopefully this will cut down on the anticipation time, and increase the ride time on this.
Anyway, this introduction is certainally thilling, and I can only hope my ride this coming May will live up to the immense hype.
These days the parts are easy enough that even lego people can put them together, plug and play, like lego's themselves. Now a manual from back in the day when they really had to do some work would be nice.... Oh wait, that would involve scores of pictures involving lego's with jumpers now, wouldn't it?
A friend wrote this, I thought it was quite apropriate.
Dear Sirs,
For the past 5 years, I have been a customer of your company. I have bought
and enjoyed many of your games, from Warcraft 1 to Diablo II. I have always
been amazed at the new and inovative ideas and technology that goes into every
one of your products. Warcraft III is no exception to this rule. Even without
playing it, I can already tell that this game will be one of the greatest RTS
games in history. I have been telling all my friends about it and have even
gone so far as to upgrade two of my PC's for the sole purpose of running Warcraft
III. I thought that it was money well spent....I was wrong.
What right do you have to tell legitimate,PAYING customers how they should
use their software?! Have we not already supported you in many ways? Not the
least of these being the spending of thousands of dollars world-wide in an effort
to show our love and support for your company! To take measures to protect your
"Intellectual Property" is all well and good. But to emulate Microsoft
corporation by limiting your customers ability to innovate and expand their
computers capabilities,I just cannot find a logical excuse for a tactic like
this.
When Battle.net was created, I was overjoyed at the thought of being able
to play with my cousin that lives in another state. Just the thought of being
able,with minimum effort and a few mouse clicks,to play a game with someone
over 500 miles away without expensive phone charges was almost too good to be
true. Too bad that it was. Within a few weeks of using it, I witnessed persons
misusing the Battle.net service,cheating,hacking,spamming, and various other
offences. I complained and noticed that some minor steps were taken, but soon
after,I witnessed the same *illegal I might add* actions being committed over
and over again. So finally,fed up with a service that no longer was putting
the customer over it's own profit-needs, I searched for another way to play
games like Warcraft II-BNE and Starcraft-BroodWar with my friends. Bnetd was
the answer to my prayers. It gave my friends and I a way to create servers that
were free of cheaters,hackers,and spammers. My friends and I were overjoyed
that a group of average "Joe Smith" kinda guys would donate their
time FREELY to create a better gaming environment for all gamers to enjoy. They
even went so far as to offer linux versions of their open-sourse software so
that linux users were no longer left out in the cold by your company.
But in the end...the almighty dollar beckoned...and YOU ANSWERED THE CALL.
Immediately you tooks steps to "protect our Intellectual Property"
and said that you "are well within our legal rights to protect our products
from software piracy." In this fact,I do agree with you. However, I do
not agree with the manner in which you dealt with the situation. I am sure that
if you had even tried to work out an agreement with the creators/maintainers
of Bnetd, that they would have been happy to have done all they could to accomodate
any changes in their software that you thought would be nessessary to facilitate
the full protection of your "Intellectual Property". But instead you
, ONCE AGAIN, decided to follow in the footsteps of the power hungry Bill Gates
and crush a small group of open-sourse programmers who were truly trying to
inovate the sorely-lacking gaming industry by FREELY giving THEIR TIME in the
hopes that one day you would finally clean up Battle.net and restore the honor
and respect that many users once had in you...but this was not to be.
My (ex) friends, today the gaming industry has lost something....something
precious. It has lost compassion for the very core of what keeps games selling
and companies like you alive....The Gamers Themselves! You have revealed your
true intentions to the world and I will no longer support you in the path that
you have chosen to take. I will no longer purchase any software your company
has to offer. I will no longer speak kindly about your company to anyone I meet.
I'm sure that others will have compassion for the roots of the gaming industry
again someday, and I pray that someone is YOU.
This concludes my feelings on this matter. Thank you for your attention.
Slashdot Mirror
At one of the best Technical / Engineering schools which I attend, C's are given out just as frequently as the A's and B's. It is not uncommon for a class average to be ~70 in courses such as University Physics, or higher math. Of course, with liberal arts courses, if you do the work, you get your A.
I can't understand how they can't hold students to the same level of success across the board though. I have friends who do nothing, get 4.0's and are in a major that is regarded as being simple (read: IT). Then again there are the engineers (read: me) who need to be perfect in everything they do, or get low grades. You say they need to be correct, but what about doctors? What about people who operate things the engineers create? Don't they need to be held accountable for their accuracy?
Maybe I'm biased, in fact I know I am, yet it seems as if something needs to change in this system.
I've a friend who is a certified welder, his brother is a plumber, and the friend was working at the time as an electrician.
You put all those into one, and come up with one hell of a weapon. PVC is not good to use because it will shatter, so they made their latest out of ABS. My friend fabricated a nice little ignitor out of a sparker/toggle switch combination, and sharpened the end of the ABS barrel carefully.
Next, a potato was inserted or a green tomato, and plunged down just to the right level. Finally he would take it over to his welding tanks, put in quite a bit of Acetylene, and just a tiny touch of Oxygen. Someone skilled in chemical reaction will know its the oxygen that will really cause the combustion, not the acetylene alone. Finally we would screw the end shut and let'er rip.
I must say, we certainally had fun with that thing, we fired a green tomato *through* a piece of three-quarter inch fiberglass. (the tomatos are much softer than the potatos, and thus tend to rice better) Firing a potato directly at a fence post would instantly rice the potato, and there would be flecks of it all over, but we were on a farm, so we didn't care.
The best part of all however was launching it at the appropriate angle, and just letting it fly. Since we used to launch from a place which we'd also use as a firing range I remember aproximate distances, so we were around one hundered-fifty yards away from the woods. You launch the gun at approximately a 40 degree angle, and just watch the potato disappear over the trees still angled upwards and rising.
Now, mind you, we are older and wiser now, but back then we did use some precautions which I would recommend to anyone even thinking about such an experiment:
1. Please, for the love of god, go someplace where someone can't be hurt. We were firing into a forest many miles long, which we knew nobody would be in at the time.
2. Please, don't stand behind, or lean over the gun. The "T" used to create it has three holes of course, the top and back with stoppers in them, and the front with the barrel, if one of those would fly off in an explosion, I wouldn't want to be in its path. The best way to fire these are to have one person hold it slinghandedly to their side firmly with two hands, and then another to flick the ignitor.
3. Please realize that it is a dangerous weapon, not much unlike a cannon. It can do real damage, and its a lot of fun used correctly, but as the story has quoted, it can do a lot of damage as well.
Ah yes, those were the days...
Cedar Point is certainally a great park. They care for their employees, and run a great place. I have had much experience with many people involved with the park over the years, living just a stones throw away. I did some computer work in the past for the head mainframe analyst there a while back. I saw some pictures from their data rooms back in the mainframe days, as well as some more current ones. It certainally is an impressive sight, especially being an amusement park. The park is built in fact on a peninsula, not an island, so they have more room then you would think to expand, as well as hotels, and marinas which can be used for future expansion. They outdid themselves with the Millennium Force in my opinion. There is nothing like watching your favorite lady (or man) in the seat next to you as you scream down a 310 foot drop in the front seat. I can only hope this coming attraction will hold a candle to its predecessors. Cedar Point has several methods these days to cut down on the time to wait in line, such as hand stamps, and such, for those early to arrive. Hopefully this will cut down on the anticipation time, and increase the ride time on this. Anyway, this introduction is certainally thilling, and I can only hope my ride this coming May will live up to the immense hype.
These days the parts are easy enough that even lego people can put them together, plug and play, like lego's themselves. Now a manual from back in the day when they really had to do some work would be nice.... Oh wait, that would involve scores of pictures involving lego's with jumpers now, wouldn't it?
Dear Sirs,
For the past 5 years, I have been a customer of your company. I have bought and enjoyed many of your games, from Warcraft 1 to Diablo II. I have always been amazed at the new and inovative ideas and technology that goes into every one of your products. Warcraft III is no exception to this rule. Even without playing it, I can already tell that this game will be one of the greatest RTS games in history. I have been telling all my friends about it and have even gone so far as to upgrade two of my PC's for the sole purpose of running Warcraft III. I thought that it was money well spent....I was wrong.
What right do you have to tell legitimate,PAYING customers how they should use their software?! Have we not already supported you in many ways? Not the least of these being the spending of thousands of dollars world-wide in an effort to show our love and support for your company! To take measures to protect your "Intellectual Property" is all well and good. But to emulate Microsoft corporation by limiting your customers ability to innovate and expand their computers capabilities,I just cannot find a logical excuse for a tactic like this.
When Battle.net was created, I was overjoyed at the thought of being able to play with my cousin that lives in another state. Just the thought of being able,with minimum effort and a few mouse clicks,to play a game with someone over 500 miles away without expensive phone charges was almost too good to be true. Too bad that it was. Within a few weeks of using it, I witnessed persons misusing the Battle.net service,cheating,hacking,spamming, and various other offences. I complained and noticed that some minor steps were taken, but soon after,I witnessed the same *illegal I might add* actions being committed over and over again. So finally,fed up with a service that no longer was putting the customer over it's own profit-needs, I searched for another way to play games like Warcraft II-BNE and Starcraft-BroodWar with my friends. Bnetd was the answer to my prayers. It gave my friends and I a way to create servers that were free of cheaters,hackers,and spammers. My friends and I were overjoyed that a group of average "Joe Smith" kinda guys would donate their time FREELY to create a better gaming environment for all gamers to enjoy. They even went so far as to offer linux versions of their open-sourse software so that linux users were no longer left out in the cold by your company.
But in the end...the almighty dollar beckoned...and YOU ANSWERED THE CALL. Immediately you tooks steps to "protect our Intellectual Property"
and said that you "are well within our legal rights to protect our products from software piracy." In this fact,I do agree with you. However, I do not agree with the manner in which you dealt with the situation. I am sure that if you had even tried to work out an agreement with the creators/maintainers of Bnetd, that they would have been happy to have done all they could to accomodate any changes in their software that you thought would be nessessary to facilitate the full protection of your "Intellectual Property". But instead you , ONCE AGAIN, decided to follow in the footsteps of the power hungry Bill Gates and crush a small group of open-sourse programmers who were truly trying to inovate the sorely-lacking gaming industry by FREELY giving THEIR TIME in the hopes that one day you would finally clean up Battle.net and restore the honor and respect that many users once had in you...but this was not to be.
My (ex) friends, today the gaming industry has lost something....something precious. It has lost compassion for the very core of what keeps games selling and companies like you alive....The Gamers Themselves! You have revealed your true intentions to the world and I will no longer support you in the path that you have chosen to take. I will no longer purchase any software your company has to offer. I will no longer speak kindly about your company to anyone I meet.
I'm sure that others will have compassion for the roots of the gaming industry again someday, and I pray that someone is YOU.
This concludes my feelings on this matter. Thank you for your attention.