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User: BrokenHalo

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  1. Re:False analogy. on Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall · · Score: 1

    The professor is there to teach you. The books, notes and other aids are to help you if you failed to understand it when he taught it.

    No, the professor is there to help you learn. So are the books, notes and other aids. The professor is not there to ladle knowledge down your throat like chicken soup, he is there to spark your awareness of the content, get you engaging your brain and making connections.

  2. Re:False analogy. on Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall · · Score: 1

    Making paper planes out of the notes and throwing them at the lecturer does absorb the attention a lot. But at least it made Analytical Chemistry fun!

    But Analytical Chemistry is fun. We didn't spend much time in lectures, though: our course was mostly done in the lab, which is what it's all about...

  3. Re:False analogy. on Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall · · Score: 1

    In most science degree courses, you can pretty much guarantee that the student with the laptop open is the student who isn't paying attention to the lecturer. The old pen/pencil and paper technique is much faster and more efficient for rapid note-taking where any kind of symbols or diagrammatic content are prevalent.

    Most of my fellow students were well aware of this, but occasionally there would be some dick trying to show off. My profs were on the whole fairly laid-back about this, occasionally letting slip the odd choice remark about Facebook, or pausing to say "you got all that?". After all, it wasn't their problem if the student failed.

  4. Re:False analogy. on Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall · · Score: 1

    Also, the doodles may also be related to what is actually being taught and may be of use.

    The doodles can be entirely irrelevant but still useful. I remember scoring a few bonus marks in exams by way of having remembered doodles on my notes as visual cues.

  5. Re:False analogy. on Professors Banning Laptops In the Lecture Hall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Try "liberal arts major".

    Err, no. I guess I would have to say I'm now mostly a Mac user (probably 60% of the time, the remainder Linux), and I did a double degree in molecular biology and mathematics.

  6. Re:no, Python is not the language to start with on The Value of BASIC As a First Programming Language · · Score: 2, Interesting

    IMHO a better choice is assembly, but BASIC does have the advantage of providing faster rewards.

    Assembly's great, but you sort of have to keep re-learning it for different processors. My first programming was in assembly on a Burroughs B3700 back in the late '70s, and in a way it taught me everything I know about programming.

    But if you're prepared to go old-school, my recommendation would be Fortran. As the quote goes: "Real Programmers code in Fortran. If the job can't be done in Fortran, do it in Assembly. If it can't be done in Assembly, it isn't worth doing."

  7. Re:A couple of things on Linux Takes Over E-Voting In Australian State · · Score: 1

    How come this inflammatory, bigoted remark is modded as informative?

  8. Re:What is your OS? on Best Resource For Identifying Legit Applications? · · Score: 1

    I had to do a web search to learn how to decipher the MacSpeak.

    Really?
    Preferences -> Sharing -> File sharing (tick). Choose the folder you want to share.

    I use Linux on my desktop machine (though not Ubuntu, I prefer Arch), but I can't say file sharing is any easier there. I don't see how it could be.

  9. Re:Same old Apple on Apple's iPhone Developer License Agreement Revealed · · Score: 1

    they never signed on to the OS as an "open(ish) platform" thing that PC users (and unix geeks to an even greater extent) came to expect.

    In the case of the iPhone, one can barely call it an OS. The device somewhat reminds me of a turntable for playing black vinyl records. You have to take off one disc before you can play another. I personally don't place heavy demands on my own phone, but if I were to take mobile technology (other than my laptop with wireless cell connection) on board as a useful appliance for work online or (!) any real computing, I would expect some reasonable level of multi-tasking capability.

  10. Re:Maybe its time ... on Apple's iPhone Developer License Agreement Revealed · · Score: 1

    Google doesn't force anyone to use its software. And believe it or not, it is entirely possible to live a fulfilled life with the various google analytics and adservers blocked at hosts-file level. And there's no real reason to keep their session cookies, however delicious they may be.

  11. Re:What's the big deal? on Apple's iPhone Developer License Agreement Revealed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple's policy is more like how when you go to Disney World everything is controlled by Disney.

    Apple has always made a big thing of pointing its marketing at "creative types" who supposedly think outside the box. This just goes to confirm that what this really means is "You'll think outside the box in the way that WE tell you to, dammit".

    Is it just me, or has Apple become more and more oppressive to users and developers over the last couple of years? Barely a day seems to go by when they haven't fucked someone over.

    [Disclaimer: I am not a Microsoft shill - this is typed on a 2nd-hand 2.16GHz MacBook, and my desktop machine runs Arch Linux.]

  12. Re:Translation on Apple's "iKey" Wants To Unlock All Doors · · Score: 1

    ...the device that allows people to communicate over long or short distances without being able to see each other, and call it the telephone.

    I think you're talking about the iCans, which are connected by a length of white string. :-D

  13. Re:Stay away from this on Theoretical Breakthrough For Quantum Cryptography · · Score: 1

    I always suspected that all this "entangling photon pairs" and "quantum encryption channel" stuff was just a bunch of scientists jerking off...

    Exactly. This is sort of why I am deeply suspicious of quantum cryptography. When is a cat not a cat? Look at your data sideways, and it suddenly realises that it's not supposed to exist?

    Oh wait, that sounds like a Microsoft filesystem... ;-)

  14. Re:Print is dying. Digital is surging-Nobody confu on The Evolution of Reading In the Digital Age · · Score: 1

    Nobody is confused, but not for the reasons you give.

    The digital option is attractive for texts that will only be read once, or for texts that are expensive and bulky in their dead-tree form. I have a lot of the latter in the form of biochemistry and molecular biology textbooks which never followed me very far from home because they were/are too fucking heavy to carry.

    On the other hand, digital reproduction has to be REALLY GOOD and detailed to be even remotely useful for that kind of text. I have never yet seen a digital text of this type that really passes muster. It's just a pity that the technology just wasn't there when I was doing my undergrad degree, but then I guess I have no right to complain when preceding generations didn't even have the advantages of the internet.

    But for novels, poetry or anything I read for actual pleasure, dead trees are still where it's at for me. The feel and smell of the paper and print are part of the experience.

  15. Good examples are there... on Improving Education Through Better Teachers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is no evidence that paying more will produce better teachers.

    This is pretty nearly right. Of the many education systems worldwide, the finest is widely reputed (by many comparative reviews) to be that of Finland. Not necessarily because teachers there are so incredibly well paid, but because their profession commands RESPECT.

    That means allowing them the space to exercise their experience and common sense rather than regulating their activities into a series of so-called "outcomes" that have to be ticked off so that petty-minded little bureaucrats can get a good night's sleep. It also means not leaving teachers exposed to be pilloried by media and politicians for their own ends.

    We need to try treating teachers as valued members of society, for the fact that they are entrusted with the education of future generations, rather than treating them as political footballs. Of course, that also means that teachers need to be paid well enough that they don't feel exploited. After all, who among us really wants to give 100% when we are feeling aggrieved with our employer?

  16. Re:walled garden on Apple Removes Wi-Fi Finders From App Store · · Score: 1

    If you want a great mp3 player I suggest...hold on to your hat...a Zune HD.

    Putting aside my temperamental aversion to Microsoft, that just isn't an option here in Australia. Remember, the Zune is not available outside the US or Canada. Just goes to show how serious Microsoft ever were about that the mp3 player market.

    The claim that the Classic is "stale" seems a bit silly. Sure, it's not be the most recent design, but who cares? It is elegant, simple to use, and hasn't really dated. And 160GB is more storage than anything else I've seen on offer.

  17. Re:Make punishment fit the crime... on Mariposa Botnet Authors Unlikely To See Jail Time · · Score: 1

    That would take away "jobs", aka the overpaid uneducated contractors who do these thing for the municipalities.

    Not really - they could do the supervising as part of their own jobs, to make sure the creeps show up and do the work. It wouldn't be that hard to arrange.

  18. Re:the usa HAS strong protection for minority righ on China's Human Flesh Search Engine · · Score: 1

    and democracy is obviously superior to totalitarianism, autocracy, military juntas, theocracies, monarchies, etc. democracy is not perfect. its simply BETTER than all other alternatives

    Democracy hasn't been tried very often. The closest we've ever seen was in Classical (C. 600-320 BC) Athens, and history tells us that democracy was hardly inimical to autocracy, or the rise of demagogues or military juntas.

    everyone in the world deserves the rights and freedoms and self-determination of living in a democracy

    I can just see the average American citizen being whipped with red paint and forced to attend an Ekklesia (assembly) to assert their democratic right, which is also a duty. The whining would never stop.

    You have done a lot of sounding off on democracy and Orwell in this discussion, without leaving us much evidence that you have done any reading on or of either. Democracy is an elusive beast that demands of its citizens as much as it confers, while Orwell was writing allegories and commentaries on trends that he saw happening in society. Many aspects of what he wrote has particular resonance today for the simple reason that they have turned out to be literally prophetic.

    Orwell wasn't creating "memes". That term was coined by Dawkins in the '70s, and refers to something completely different. Orwell was writing about the inherent baseness of which the human species is capable, and to put this under the heading of a "meme" or a "pleasant fantasy" is to trivialise it beyond recognition.

  19. Re:Beats the RIAA lawsuits on Mariposa Botnet Authors Unlikely To See Jail Time · · Score: 1

    Yes, but all we're doing here is redefining what makes a cybercriminal. Thugs using the court system for extorting thousands or millions of dollars from individuals for trivial offences that hurt no-one and deprive no-one of their property are just another facet of a legal system that informs us that crime does indeed pay.

  20. Make punishment fit the crime... on Mariposa Botnet Authors Unlikely To See Jail Time · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Essentially what these spammers have mostly done is cause a lot of people a great deal of inconvenience. If they are guilty of phishing attacks, then that would surely come under the heading of theft or fraud, which would be punishable by jail under Spanish law.

    Otherwise, jailing the creeps only places another drain on society, when what you really want is to stop them being antisocial, and preferably discourage others from doing the same. So how about this, for a change:

    Make the guys do something actually useful for a few years. Like send them out on supervised work orders to pick up rubbish from the streets, scrub public loos and remove graffiti.

  21. Fighting spam the old way on Mariposa Botnet Authors Unlikely To See Jail Time · · Score: 1

    Oh, for the days when fighting spam meant catching the asshole who persisted on ignoring your "no junk mail" sign.

    I still get more junk mail in my letterbox than I do junk email.

    Occasionally I do manage to catch the creeps. I live in a cul-de-sac street, so delivery people have to go out the way they come in. So if I do happen to see them shove paper in my mailbox, I accost them as they retrace their steps and make them take it back.

  22. And the other challenge... on Toyota Black Box Data Is More Closed Than Others' · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...namely that million-dollar reward for finding the cause of unwanted acceleration is probably fairly safe if nobody will reveal their source code.

    It would be interesting if this flushed a few Real Programmers out of the woodwork, but most of them are in retirement, fly-fishing for salmon by now.

  23. Re:walled garden on Apple Removes Wi-Fi Finders From App Store · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If their brilliant little gem happens to be a little too close to something Apple has planned for iPhone OS v. 4, it'll simply be murdered in the cradle without useful comment.

    It is the sheer nastiness of Apple's extreme highhanded policies and litigious corporate mindset that makes Apple platforms less and less attractive to me as time goes by. I have (and actually quite like) a MacBook, and the iPod is by far the best mp3 player around, but hardly a day goes by without Apple or sometimes Steve Jobs personally fucking someone over.

    I'll be voting with my wallet next time any of my devices need replacing. I've been using Linux on my desktop machines for over 15 years, and there's nothing stopping me using it on my next laptop. And I will not be buying an iPhone.

  24. Re:hmm... on A Public Funded "Microsoft Shop?" · · Score: 2, Informative

    Microsoft has indeed done so on many occasions with both State and Federal government ministers here in Australia. Maybe they think Australians are so red around the neck (and I am including representatives of both major parties here) that they couldn't give a fuck about any dodgy deal.

    Well, it looks like they're pretty much right.

  25. Re:Dear Ubuntu on Ubuntu Gets a New Visual Identity · · Score: 1

    Consistent quality is MUCH more important than eye candy !!

    I'd agree, but you have to admit that babyshit-brown theme was pretty unappealing.