I agree with your premise (that it's impossible to expect a teacher to individualize education for 30 students) but disagree with your proposed solution (technology).
The real solution is the CHANGE THE SYSTEM. 30 kids to one teacher is a horrible system. 20 kids to one teacher is a very bad system. 10 kids to one teacher is BARELY workable.
That's if we care about children getting a good education. Clearly, we don't.
Exactly. All of this stuff just distances teachers from students even more and makes education less humane.
There should be NO computers in classrooms. They are a huge distraction.
If "education" is about filling up brains with facts, we don't need teachers at all.
The public school system is broken.
Children need role models and human teachers who look them in the eye and care about them as human beings.
Public school teachers haven't done anything like this in decades.
This is just the next nail in the coffin.
Paypal lets you have two different accounts, one for business and one for personal. The business account can be upgraded to premium, accept credit cards, and be subject to the 3% fee. Your personal account does not have to be upgraded and can continue with no fees.
You know, I don't think you've quite taken it far enough.
Personally, I think we should outlaw speaking. Maybe even outlaw living. You know, those humans, they can *TALK* to each other. And that is a dangerous thing.
Problems like this are one of the driving forces behind the growing popularity of digital gold currencies, such as E-Gold.
For those who are not familiar with these... they allow anybody in the world to pay anybody else in the world a certain amount of gold. The actual gold sits in a vault (or actually several vaults across several locations on earth) and basically what gets exchanged is the rights to a fraction of that gold held in trust.
There are several well established digital gold currencies now, with E-Gold being the oldest, running since 1996 I believe.
One of the important distinctions between using E-gold as a payment system, and (say) credit cards, is that there are no chargebacks. That means that when a merchant receives payment, he is SURE that he has received REAL VALUE and not something that can be revoked.
Because of this, digital gold has really been catching on for online commerce in a lot of locations worldwide where credit cards have not been traditionally used. Places such as India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa are prime markets for digital currency. And personally, I think that western nations will really benefit from the birth of digital gold currencies as well.
Lets face it: the whole western world banking system is terribly outdated, and as evidenced by the high incidence of online fraud, credit cards are not really a great solution for e-commerce.
And I haven't even begun to mention the privacy benefits, and the fact that gold retains its value much better than government issued fiat currency.
This page has a bunch of great links about the digital currency revolution...
I think many people are making the poor assumption that Google is somehow "untouchable" by any sort of a competitor in the search engine space.
If, for whatever reason, Google becomes crap and no longer worth using, something will come along to replace it, and will most likely be even better.
You suggesting that the United States government should have control over the (currently) most important search engine in the world, is somewhat laughable, and sad. In fact, it is a sure prescription for Google's immediate failure and inability to adapt to the market, as is evidenced by the poor quality of every public service offered by the government when compared to their private sector counterparts.
Abstract
The method and system of the present invention provides an improved technique for replacing, implementing and managing computer-related assets. A technician accesses the World Wide Web through a user's computer. The information resident on the computer, including information regarding the computer and the user's preferences, are downloaded to a remote storage medium through the World Wide Web. Once downloaded, all information may be removed from the user's computer. Subsequently, the technician accesses another computer such as, for example, a new computer that has been assigned to the same user. The technician accesses the World Wide Web through the new computer and downloads the information previously stored on the remote storage medium. This information can then be used to install the user's prior applications, settings and preferences on the new computer.
As the parent noted, as would anybody who actually took the time to read the patent abstract (which apparently does NOT the original poster), this patent is for using the web as a place to migrate settings and data from one computer to another.
Now, in my opinion, the actual patent is also ridiculous and way too broad in scope, but not nearly as bad as the picture painted by/.
A Tablet Pc is just an expensive doodle pad without the handwriting recognition.
Not really. I have a tablet running XP Tablet PC edition which has excellent handwriting recognition, and I find myself using this feature rarely. Mostly because I can type about 50X faster, and it's so easy to flip out the keyboard and type instead of writing.
Instead, the main advantage of the tablet PC in my eyes is form factor / comfort for passive applications such as web browsing.
A tablet PC is not something you can really understand until you've used one extensively. Before I began using it, I had also thought that the handwriting recognition would/should be an important feature. It is not.
So, you've got a perfectly good laptop now, and instead of just buying a notepad, you're going to buy a combination of the two?
You're missing the obvious advantage of having one device instead of two.
In fact, I was just passively reading slashdot in tablet mode on my Portege 3500, when I decided to flip it into laptop mode to quickly write this rebuttal to your ignorant posts. Now I will flip back into tablet mode and continue browsing slashdot like a book.
Now -- let's see... you suggest having two different devices... Am I supposed to carry two devices with me at all times? And if I were browsing this same article on my slate tablet, and wanted to write a length reply like this, I would have to boot up / start using my tablet, navigate to the same page I am already at, and write this reply? Or use a pen that is made for only short input?
I hope you can see that there are clear advantages to the hybrid style.
Speak for yourself -- don't be so quick to determine what "people" want.
I have personally owned a Fujitsu Stylistic slate-style tablet PC, a Toshiba Portege 3500 Hybrid style tablet PC, and of course various standard laptop computers.
The style I would choose? The hybrid. There is simply no loss of "convenience" as you put it. There is the obvious ADDED convenience of having ONE device instead of TWO.
This is some info for DSL in China. It is super cheap!
According to the latest information, ADSL service in major cities offers four monthly plans for residential customers: 60 yuan ($7.2) for 45 hours (@512Kbps), 80 yuan ($9.6) 60 hours (512Kbps), 120 yuan ($14.5) for 60 hours (@1Mbps) and 130 yuan ($15.7) for unlimited use. For extra time outside allowance, the charge is.05 yuan a minute or 3 yuan an hour, or.07 a minute or 4.2 yuan an hour for the 120-yuan plan. Access fee for business and residential customers is 900 yuan which includes installation/testing, and modem. There is 400 yuan ($48.2) for access from LAN; 500 yuan ($60) if using a PCMCIA card, and 700 yuan ($84) for USB interface. In March 2002, Railcom began to offer ADSL in Beijing with a flat monthly fee instead of hour-based plans. Its lowest monthly fee is 150 yuan ($18) at 512Kbps; other datarates include 1Mbps and 2Mbps. Cost for ADSL service is falling rapidly; Beijing, for example, has recently slashed installation charge to 300 yuan ($36), and is running a promotion of 50% off regular monthly charges through June 2003. In Shanghai, broadband service has fallen to 180 yuan ($21.7) for installation charges and 100 yuan ($12) for unlimited use.
From the website: " The software included in GNUWin is not shareware nor freeware, but original free software and Open Source software, for which the source code is available, and that is and will always be free (free both as in "free speech", and as in "free beer")."
I usually have a ping between 40 and 80 ms. With Halo, this means that every now and then, there is a short, tolerable amount of noticable lag, but for the most part the game is perfectly smooth.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with your premise (that it's impossible to expect a teacher to individualize education for 30 students) but disagree with your proposed solution (technology). The real solution is the CHANGE THE SYSTEM. 30 kids to one teacher is a horrible system. 20 kids to one teacher is a very bad system. 10 kids to one teacher is BARELY workable. That's if we care about children getting a good education. Clearly, we don't.
Exactly. All of this stuff just distances teachers from students even more and makes education less humane. There should be NO computers in classrooms. They are a huge distraction. If "education" is about filling up brains with facts, we don't need teachers at all. The public school system is broken. Children need role models and human teachers who look them in the eye and care about them as human beings. Public school teachers haven't done anything like this in decades. This is just the next nail in the coffin.
fb
Yes, it's a horrible idea. End of argument.
Paypal lets you have two different accounts, one for business and one for personal. The business account can be upgraded to premium, accept credit cards, and be subject to the 3% fee. Your personal account does not have to be upgraded and can continue with no fees.
*WHY* is this on Slashdot?
The ultimate irony.
Google's response to the whole China situation is hosted on blogspot.com. This entire domain is CENSORED IN ITS ENTIRETY in Mainland China.
I want to read Google's defense of this -- I really do.
But unfortunately they're supporting the policies that make me unable to read it.
[As a side note, VPN access is blocked as well currently.]
Maybe you should read a little more closely: unused does not mean used.
You know, I don't think you've quite taken it far enough.
..."
Personally, I think we should outlaw speaking. Maybe even outlaw living. You know, those humans, they can *TALK* to each other. And that is a dangerous thing.
"Hey wanna hear something cool?"
"Ok. What?"
"1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1
For those who are not familiar with these... they allow anybody in the world to pay anybody else in the world a certain amount of gold. The actual gold sits in a vault (or actually several vaults across several locations on earth) and basically what gets exchanged is the rights to a fraction of that gold held in trust.
There are several well established digital gold currencies now, with E-Gold being the oldest, running since 1996 I believe.
One of the important distinctions between using E-gold as a payment system, and (say) credit cards, is that there are no chargebacks. That means that when a merchant receives payment, he is SURE that he has received REAL VALUE and not something that can be revoked.
Because of this, digital gold has really been catching on for online commerce in a lot of locations worldwide where credit cards have not been traditionally used. Places such as India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa are prime markets for digital currency. And personally, I think that western nations will really benefit from the birth of digital gold currencies as well.
Lets face it: the whole western world banking system is terribly outdated, and as evidenced by the high incidence of online fraud, credit cards are not really a great solution for e-commerce.
(Heck, even the Mozilla Foundation accepts E-Gold donations!)
And I haven't even begun to mention the privacy benefits, and the fact that gold retains its value much better than government issued fiat currency. This page has a bunch of great links about the digital currency revolution...
You mean to tell me that previous online libraries were not online? No wonder they were all failures!
and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Such an uninteresting and unprofessonional story is shocking, even for Slashdot! Is this some kind of joke?
And how does one receive messages from mailing lists that are wanted?
Zelda is the best game of all time! Hands down. Anyone who has beaten the second quest of Zelda for NES should get a trophy or something.
Better yet, check this out for the free online version.
If, for whatever reason, Google becomes crap and no longer worth using, something will come along to replace it, and will most likely be even better.
You suggesting that the United States government should have control over the (currently) most important search engine in the world, is somewhat laughable, and sad. In fact, it is a sure prescription for Google's immediate failure and inability to adapt to the market, as is evidenced by the poor quality of every public service offered by the government when compared to their private sector counterparts.
Now, in my opinion, the actual patent is also ridiculous and way too broad in scope, but not nearly as bad as the picture painted by /.
Not really. I have a tablet running XP Tablet PC edition which has excellent handwriting recognition, and I find myself using this feature rarely. Mostly because I can type about 50X faster, and it's so easy to flip out the keyboard and type instead of writing.
Instead, the main advantage of the tablet PC in my eyes is form factor / comfort for passive applications such as web browsing.
A tablet PC is not something you can really understand until you've used one extensively. Before I began using it, I had also thought that the handwriting recognition would/should be an important feature. It is not.
You're missing the obvious advantage of having one device instead of two.
In fact, I was just passively reading slashdot in tablet mode on my Portege 3500, when I decided to flip it into laptop mode to quickly write this rebuttal to your ignorant posts. Now I will flip back into tablet mode and continue browsing slashdot like a book.
Now -- let's see... you suggest having two different devices... Am I supposed to carry two devices with me at all times? And if I were browsing this same article on my slate tablet, and wanted to write a length reply like this, I would have to boot up / start using my tablet, navigate to the same page I am already at, and write this reply? Or use a pen that is made for only short input?
I hope you can see that there are clear advantages to the hybrid style.
Speak for yourself -- don't be so quick to determine what "people" want. I have personally owned a Fujitsu Stylistic slate-style tablet PC, a Toshiba Portege 3500 Hybrid style tablet PC, and of course various standard laptop computers. The style I would choose? The hybrid. There is simply no loss of "convenience" as you put it. There is the obvious ADDED convenience of having ONE device instead of TWO.
News Flash: The Internet is the result of military research. So is the automobile.
This is some info for DSL in China. It is super cheap! According to the latest information, ADSL service in major cities offers four monthly plans for residential customers: 60 yuan ($7.2) for 45 hours (@512Kbps), 80 yuan ($9.6) 60 hours (512Kbps), 120 yuan ($14.5) for 60 hours (@1Mbps) and 130 yuan ($15.7) for unlimited use. For extra time outside allowance, the charge is .05 yuan a minute or 3 yuan an hour, or .07 a minute or 4.2 yuan an hour for the 120-yuan plan. Access fee for business and residential customers is 900 yuan which includes installation/testing, and modem. There is 400 yuan ($48.2) for access from LAN; 500 yuan ($60) if using a PCMCIA card, and 700 yuan ($84) for USB interface. In March 2002, Railcom began to offer ADSL in Beijing with a flat monthly fee instead of hour-based plans. Its lowest monthly fee is 150 yuan ($18) at 512Kbps; other datarates include 1Mbps and 2Mbps. Cost for ADSL service is falling rapidly; Beijing, for example, has recently slashed installation charge to 300 yuan ($36), and is running a promotion of 50% off regular monthly charges through June 2003. In Shanghai, broadband service has fallen to 180 yuan ($21.7) for installation charges and 100 yuan ($12) for unlimited use.
Yes, they are all free/libre.
From the website:
" The software included in GNUWin is not shareware nor freeware, but original free software and Open Source software, for which the source code is available, and that is and will always be free (free both as in "free speech", and as in "free beer")."
This is just my experience with XBconnect.