I can guarantee I'd be bringing it in for repairs every day.
Me: "It uh... broke" Clockly Repair Man: "it rather looks as if it was smashed with a hammer, repeatedly" Me: "well it fell... into... a bag of hammers"
The amount of light entering through that pinhole of a camera lens is going to be sufficient for reliable OCR of 10 point fonts on a piece of A4 in variable lighting conditions approximately when the laws of physics stop working.
Convenience? The more you cram into one device, the worse job it will do at all of them. Don't even try to convince me that the picture quality from some integrated widget is going to be within a mile of the quality of a $300 camera or $400 camcorder.
And I don't to have to push a few buttons to get my pda/phone/camera into phone mode to make a call. Nor do I want some kiddie to hack into my pda/phone/camera and download everything about me.
I want a phone that calls people, it should be lightweight, very very tough (no 5 inch touch screen!) and not have a camera lens that I have to worry about. Nor do I want to recharge it every day. Integrated devices sacrifice in durability and longevity.
I want an ipod with many gigs of storage so that I can just grab it whatever mood I'm in, and find a suitable playlist. Integrated devices sacrifice in storage (at least right now)
I want a camera that takes good pictures and has a big honkin lens to capture lots of light for decent night time pictures. It should have a variety of features that allow me to tailor my pictures to different techniques (exposures, focus settings, etc). Integrated device sacrifice in picture quality.
A phone in my MP3 player? That's pretty easy to resist. I beat the living tar out of my phone. Most people do.
The ipod is pretty tough yea, but it wouldn't last a week in the chassis of my mobile phone.
Nor would I want my phone to have a net worth of $400 either.
Can we get over this fixation with phone/mp3/toaster oven/breadmakers already? Their day has come and gone. I want devices grouped by how I use and abuse them.
Someone who finds NASA a pair of balls should get $50,000.
Ok, maybe I'm being too harsh, it's 20/20 hindsight on my part to think that strapping people to big tanks of fuel and lighting it on fire is dangerous. We were only able to figure that out after they started blowing up, so I maybe they're justified in freezing like a deer in headlights in light of the shuttle tragedies.
That would be a fine description of the issue if problem children were randomly scattered about different schools.
But they are not. If learning problems are clustered around specific schools, or instruction methods (or even national education policy decisions *cough*) you can't just blame the kids.
Computers are certainly a valuable tool for instruction.
What they are not is a complete replacement.
There are certain kinds for learning for which a computer is very well optimized, and I'm not just talking about entertainment. A well written, computerized flash program could probably teach you vocab far quicker than a human instructor. The computer can keep track of your accuracy and even response time for each item, figuring out your weak points and concentrating on those. And it can do this equally well whether you have 5 classmates or 500. No teacher can match this feat.
The problem is that we are in the backlash of the education dotcom bubble. Just as with the business dotcom bubble, we're now looking at the ideas seriously and sorting out what works from what doesn't. It will take time as the correct tools and methods are identified. As with e-commerce, things will improve. Teachers won't be replaced, but their lives will be easier, and their students smarter.
Computer generally offer win-win, it's just a bumpy road.
The scientific publishing industry isn't bending over backwards to make anyone happy (except their accountants of course).
Your idea is cute and all, but they stick it to both authors and readers.
Readers have to pay exhorbitant fees, as much as $40 for 5 days of access to a single article (that's just my discipline). The only way to get affordable access to these discplines is for libraries to band together and get big group package deals.
And authors have to pay to publish their own papers, which are already prepared according to strict formatting guidelines. Their reviewers aren't paid either.
So publishing houses are getting cash from both ends and in this era of paper-less publication have fewer and fewer BrickNMortar costs per issue sold.
Hundreds of episodes available for free on real-audio.
But you'll want a way to stream them to a file that you can listen to later, the shows are $13 apiece, which is a bit steep if you're just looking to buy them blindly.
Yes, fire everyone! Don't bother taking an important chance to educate the existing workforce. After all, it would cost practically nothing to rehire and retrain 30% of the IRS.
So while I agree with you that absolutely draconian measures are called for, and people should be fired for not being as smart as you (even though they were hired for jobs in which computer expertise is not a prerequisite), I'm curious about the potential disaster you proclaim.
What sort of disaster would this be exactly? Every other week some credit card database gets stolen and shipped to god knows where, but our lives haven't really changed that much for the worse have they? I can still buy food. The TV still works. I still have my job, a house, running water, electricity, the internet works, life goes on....
So what exactly do you propose would be the practical effect (as opposed to the chicken-little paranoia that some people here are prone to exhibit) of an IRS security breach? After all, I'm sure it's happened before and we've not been told. In fact, it probably happens annually....
Think of all the doomsayers who like to say "The sky is falling" around times of economic uncertainty and social change. In the end, the ones who take the risks during those times, usually come out ahead.
Your use of the word "usually" here is wrong. From a strictly numerical perspective, the vast majority of those who take big risks fail. They might learn something, and be better people as a result, but they leave behind the ashes of countless failed companies.
What I think you meant to say is "those who came out on top were the ones who took risks", which I would agree with. But this is a very different statement.
Imagination is better, all you need from maps is a rudimentary way to keep spatial configurations in mind. Once you start getting technical, the toys get in the way of the fun. You start worrying about details that are irrelevant to the story.
D&D 3E has exemplified this point. At first the rigid system of running combat almost like a wargame seemed appealing, but several years down the line, it's obvious that this level of detail can derail a game.
It doesn't always, it depends on the GM, but it certainly can. And it doesn't add much in the way of plot really, so you have little to gain and much to lose.
Then again, these props can help newer GM's get along in the first few years, when their skills aren't quite up to par. I'm not much of a GM myself, so I'd certainly love something like this to provide some wow factor. But under the better GMs I've played with, this would just get in the way.
Slashdot Mirror
Depends on personality really. I personally would relish the feeling of knowing I'm shadowing this guy and that the cops are on the way.
What kind of ninja are you that you can tie something to a sleeping cat?
I can guarantee I'd be bringing it in for repairs every day.
Me: "It uh... broke"
Clockly Repair Man: "it rather looks as if it was smashed with a hammer, repeatedly"
Me: "well it fell... into... a bag of hammers"
Megapixels be damned.
The amount of light entering through that pinhole of a camera lens is going to be sufficient for reliable OCR of 10 point fonts on a piece of A4 in variable lighting conditions approximately when the laws of physics stop working.
I do have an ipod. I leave it at home unless I need it, because if I took it everywhere, it would have broken long ago, and gotten soaked.
Integration sucks. Stop the crack smoking.
Convenience? The more you cram into one device, the worse job it will do at all of them. Don't even try to convince me that the picture quality from some integrated widget is going to be within a mile of the quality of a $300 camera or $400 camcorder.
And I don't to have to push a few buttons to get my pda/phone/camera into phone mode to make a call. Nor do I want some kiddie to hack into my pda/phone/camera and download everything about me.
I want a phone that calls people, it should be lightweight, very very tough (no 5 inch touch screen!) and not have a camera lens that I have to worry about. Nor do I want to recharge it every day. Integrated devices sacrifice in durability and longevity.
I want an ipod with many gigs of storage so that I can just grab it whatever mood I'm in, and find a suitable playlist. Integrated devices sacrifice in storage (at least right now)
I want a camera that takes good pictures and has a big honkin lens to capture lots of light for decent night time pictures. It should have a variety of features that allow me to tailor my pictures to different techniques (exposures, focus settings, etc). Integrated device sacrifice in picture quality.
You get what you pay for.
A phone in my MP3 player? That's pretty easy to resist. I beat the living tar out of my phone. Most people do.
The ipod is pretty tough yea, but it wouldn't last a week in the chassis of my mobile phone.
Nor would I want my phone to have a net worth of $400 either.
Can we get over this fixation with phone/mp3/toaster oven/breadmakers already? Their day has come and gone. I want devices grouped by how I use and abuse them.
Boy you sure misread that. Try again.
/.
I'm critizing NASA (not the astronauts) for being too scared to risk lives.
I guess I'll have to dial down the sarcasm a few notches when posting to
Someone who finds NASA a pair of balls should get $50,000.
Ok, maybe I'm being too harsh, it's 20/20 hindsight on my part to think that strapping people to big tanks of fuel and lighting it on fire is dangerous. We were only able to figure that out after they started blowing up, so I maybe they're justified in freezing like a deer in headlights in light of the shuttle tragedies.
The point is just to be aware of these limitations of academic research and not be taken away by apparent waves of consensus.
Bots are generally spread automatically, it's unlikely that they their distribution is the intent of their owners.
No, his point is that the 99.9% acceptance idea is invalid as an argument. That you even bring it up means you don't understand how science works.
Ah yes, here come the science by consensus trolls.
Ben, Ben, Ben.... if 99.9% consensus meant we stop thinking something is a theory, we'd still think the earth is flat.
Global Warming will Always be a theory. It's what a theory is and vice versa.
That would be a fine description of the issue if problem children were randomly scattered about different schools.
But they are not. If learning problems are clustered around specific schools, or instruction methods (or even national education policy decisions *cough*) you can't just blame the kids.
Absolutely wrong.
Computers are certainly a valuable tool for instruction.
What they are not is a complete replacement.
There are certain kinds for learning for which a computer is very well optimized, and I'm not just talking about entertainment. A well written, computerized flash program could probably teach you vocab far quicker than a human instructor. The computer can keep track of your accuracy and even response time for each item, figuring out your weak points and concentrating on those. And it can do this equally well whether you have 5 classmates or 500. No teacher can match this feat.
The problem is that we are in the backlash of the education dotcom bubble. Just as with the business dotcom bubble, we're now looking at the ideas seriously and sorting out what works from what doesn't. It will take time as the correct tools and methods are identified. As with e-commerce, things will improve. Teachers won't be replaced, but their lives will be easier, and their students smarter.
Computer generally offer win-win, it's just a bumpy road.
The scientific publishing industry isn't bending over backwards to make anyone happy (except their accountants of course).
Your idea is cute and all, but they stick it to both authors and readers.
Readers have to pay exhorbitant fees, as much as $40 for 5 days of access to a single article (that's just my discipline). The only way to get affordable access to these discplines is for libraries to band together and get big group package deals.
And authors have to pay to publish their own papers, which are already prepared according to strict formatting guidelines. Their reviewers aren't paid either.
So publishing houses are getting cash from both ends and in this era of paper-less publication have fewer and fewer BrickNMortar costs per issue sold.
That's $13 apiece on CD. Streaming is free.
This American Life
http://www.thislife.org/
Hundreds of episodes available for free on real-audio.
But you'll want a way to stream them to a file that you can listen to later, the shows are $13 apiece, which is a bit steep if you're just looking to buy them blindly.
Or Italian, Austrian and a number of other countries as well...
Yes, fire everyone! Don't bother taking an important chance to educate the existing workforce. After all, it would cost practically nothing to rehire and retrain 30% of the IRS.
So while I agree with you that absolutely draconian measures are called for, and people should be fired for not being as smart as you (even though they were hired for jobs in which computer expertise is not a prerequisite), I'm curious about the potential disaster you proclaim.
What sort of disaster would this be exactly? Every other week some credit card database gets stolen and shipped to god knows where, but our lives haven't really changed that much for the worse have they? I can still buy food. The TV still works. I still have my job, a house, running water, electricity, the internet works, life goes on....
So what exactly do you propose would be the practical effect (as opposed to the chicken-little paranoia that some people here are prone to exhibit) of an IRS security breach? After all, I'm sure it's happened before and we've not been told. In fact, it probably happens annually....
I think it's very important that all robots be made with wheels.
This way, no matter how badly things go with the laws of robotics we can just go up a flight of stairs to be safe.
I'm glad to see they agree with me.
I think it's clear that we're talking about success in the sense of businesses thriving through a period of risk.
Think of all the doomsayers who like to say "The sky is falling" around times of economic uncertainty and social change. In the end, the ones who take the risks during those times, usually come out ahead.
Your use of the word "usually" here is wrong. From a strictly numerical perspective, the vast majority of those who take big risks fail. They might learn something, and be better people as a result, but they leave behind the ashes of countless failed companies.
What I think you meant to say is "those who came out on top were the ones who took risks", which I would agree with. But this is a very different statement.
i.e.
Most who take risks fail
But all who did succeed, took risks
I'm sure it's freakin cool. Doesn't mean it adds to the game in the long run.
Imagination is better, all you need from maps is a rudimentary way to keep spatial configurations in mind. Once you start getting technical, the toys get in the way of the fun. You start worrying about details that are irrelevant to the story.
D&D 3E has exemplified this point. At first the rigid system of running combat almost like a wargame seemed appealing, but several years down the line, it's obvious that this level of detail can derail a game.
It doesn't always, it depends on the GM, but it certainly can. And it doesn't add much in the way of plot really, so you have little to gain and much to lose.
Then again, these props can help newer GM's get along in the first few years, when their skills aren't quite up to par. I'm not much of a GM myself, so I'd certainly love something like this to provide some wow factor. But under the better GMs I've played with, this would just get in the way.