While I'm not sure where the focus of the poster's prgram was, I'm not sure it's fair to say that it can't be spun into an interesting and relevant grad degree.
At my university (U of Guelph in Ontario, Canada), there were several profs doing research in imaging. For my final year project I worked on 3D image reconstruction worked with a prof whose research is in imaging and signal processing. His work is in a number of different areas, working mostly with adaptive or frozen neural netowrks for compression and also for medical imaging (working with the vet school and some hospitals). There's also a lot of work being done with 3D image reconstruction from single-camera sources, doing work on underwater wreckage and pearl harbour video, if I recall correctly. There were also a number of profs (I believe) doing work in medical imaging (the school has a biomedical eng program as well, so it works nicely).
My suggestion would first be to determine what kind of reserach you want to do, and then find a prof who is doing something in your field that you find really interesting. Then contact the prof and say you're interested and want to know if they're looking for students. Then take a good hard look at the policy that the school has in place for international students to make sure that it's actually going to be feasible to go there because grad school in the states (anywhere really) can get expensive if you're coming from out of the country.
I have very little symphathy for people who expect perfection of everyone and go around putting themselves on a high horse. Before you go around making rude comments about someone else's perceived shortcomings, I would like you to honestly state that your server has never gotten hacked, you've never had a computer virus or downloaded a piece of spyware, and never had any sort of computer security accident. I'd be willing to bet the the VAST majority of people on this website have had some peice of computer equipment compromised in some way. And while this isn't desirable, it is certainly understandable - we're not perfect. At some point, everyone is going to install some bad software, click on a bad attachment, forget to close something on their server, be a bit slow off the mark with the patches etc. Mistakes and accidents happen, and it doesn't necessarily mean that the person is stupid or a bad admin.
On a slightly different note, what if the poster was just learning about server administration? Would you be absolutely intolderant of mistakes made there too? Is there no room for a learning curve or do we now expect people to be all-knowing computer geniuses from birth? Tell me honestly that you've never before made a single error and then maybe you'll be allowed to make arrogant and rude remarks to people about how they're not good enough for your high standards.
I hardly think she'd want jewlery that still IS functional. Come on...if thinkgeek can get away with selling geeky t-shirts for girls, why would geeky jewlery not go? Half the fun of wearing accessories is that they add a touch of flair and can turn a boring old outfit into something interesting and fun. If your interests run towards the geeky, why not?
Really depends on taste and interests. Maybe your lady-friend would hate it, but some wouldn't. If you're buying something, chances are good you know how she's going to react. And not all girls would hate it. I've got a ram-chip belt buckle 'cause on day my boyfriend showed up at my house and handed me 4 ram chips from some old junked server he found somewhere. I loved it. On the other hand, if he had shown up with some delicate pink bracelet or something I would have looked at him like he was a nut job.
I'm basically your standard "ick" factor veg-head. I'm sure there were some other reasons back there somewhere too, but mostly just the "ick". I agree...I'm not sure I'd eat this stuff - I know it's not actually killing an animal and all that, but it sounds kinda creepy.
I didn't say "microsoft hardware", I said hardware that was only supported in windows. They only update the drivers for windows. Their diagnostic software is written only in windows. Works just fine in linux with the right libraries, but for this project, windows was the best way to go. and I am NOT saying that that this absolves the company of ANYTHING. What I am saying is that there are times (and this was one of them) that windows is the better option. A lot of the posters on this site seem to think that linux is the answer to every problem, and it is not.
I am aware of Microsoft's history and I do realize that they engage in some pretty shady pratices. But so do a LOT of companies. That doesn't not, on the other hand, mean that every product they turn out it automatically a crappy and useless product. Just because you don't agree with microsoft's practices does not automatically make Linux the best prduct for everything.
Really? What makes you say that? Thanks for blindly making assumptions about my knowledge and my job history. Incidentally, why on earth would you assume that I have no job history? I work for a software company.
Also, why would you assume that a student would be too stupid to understand what system worked best for them?
I have been TA'ing a first year intro to computers class for the past few semesters, and we teach FTP as part of the labs (because we make them do it old style - CLI interface...yeah, we're mean). The first semester was a DISASTER. Combining FTP with some standard unix commands and permissions structures was definately NOT the way to go. They had a really difficult time particularily with the idea of two seperate file systems.
The next semester didn't go so well either, even though we added in a huge section talking about FTP as a virtual line between two computers. Still no good. The next semester: now it's a line between to LOCATIONS on a computer system. Still no good. So last semester we eliminated any discussion of relative directories (that was the major stumbling point - they had a hard time figuring out where they were in 2 different file systems at the same time, especially because we had them duplicate the file structure on the local computer to create their files). We also broke it down into a 3 step process (after startup):
1. Tell the computer where the file is coming from
2. Tell the computer where you want it to put the file
3. Transfer the file
Even after this semester, the students were SO impressed when we showed them winSCP.
My long winded answer is this then: How about winSCP? or a slight variation? You can set up an FTP server (or SCP even if you're getting fancy) and tell people to use that client to access it. If you're ambitious, you could probably even write something to program in the server name. It already accepts saved sessions etc.
Our school used to give res kids who wanted internet access a cd with some stuff on it. It didn't do much - reconfigured the settings to access the netowrk, nothing that couldn't be done by hand. If you bundeled it with something like that, then all the res kids would have access at least. Then just pop up some instructions on a site and you're good to go.
ok, admittedly, this post is a bit inflamatory, and somewhat off-topic, but I do understand the frustration, because I've felt it myself at times.
Obviously, slashdot submissions are driven by the interests of the people that read and contribute to the site. These interests tend to run towards linux and apple and against MS, which produces a definate bias, but that's what happens when a community with strong opinions controls the content.
The frustration mostly comes from the actual comments. I can't tell you how many times I've been called ignorant for using Windows. The fact is (as I believe the parent was sort of trying to say) that there are compelling reasons for using Windows. Our server runs openBSD, and I still use mostly linux for coding, but it just makes sense to check in windows. My last project used hardware that was only supported in windows. Yeah, there were packages available for linux, but what if there were hardware problems? Where would my users get help? Not only that, but design stuff (can't afford a mac right now) and a bunch of games are SO much easier to do in windows. And it's not like this thing is breaking on me left right and center either - I've only had 1 virus in the past 2 years (my own stupidity) and although I occasionally have to wipe some spyware off, it's normally not more than 1 or 2 progams every few months, and I can usually pinpoint where the stuff is from.
Now, don't get me wrong, microsoft products are far from perfect -.NET has frustrated me to the point where a sailor would have been embarassed to hear the words coming out of my mouth, but I don't think they're the evil empire everyone makes them out to be. Just think about it this way...if this was apple, would you feel the same way? Would there be this much hostility?
Well, it's not like you're looking to replace the bone - most prosthetics / joint replacements etc. are artificial. For the doctors, the hard part is sizing, where 3d scanning probably won't be too helpful until we can generate internal scans. For the engineers who develop the actual parts though, 3D scanning is fairly common to use as a modeling tool not just for the development of the prosthetics but also in the development of surgical techniques and tools to repair the bone or actually implant the thing.
Last summer I spent some time working with a friend of mine on his phd research. I didn't get much involved in the actual research part, but he needed some help writing some script programs to do the more tedious analysis, and of course, took the opportunity to run though some of his conference presentations with me, just for kicks. The part of the project I was helping with actually DID use 3D scans of human shoulder samples.
The 3D scans were pulled into a program called Imageware as point clouds. (Imageware an SDRC program - like IDEAS, but for analysis of models rather than creation of models...backwards IDEAS). Part of the analysis I was helping with looked at rate of change of curvature of the bone samples with and without cartilage attached. Basically it helps to model a "standard" joint to develop a artificial joints. The cartilage vs. no cartilage pictures helps out on one of the major areas of his research, which is the analysis of cartilage thickness and placement. Really helpful if you're looking to graft a sample from somewhere else. Cartilage is one of those nasty things that doesn't repair itself too well, so if you screw up your shoulder or get some damage in an area where it's probably a good idea to have a bunch of cartilage, you have to know where to transplant from. Enter the 3D model. Not only that, but a good model allows you to check out new surgical techniques for actually performing the surgery.
yeah, not so sure about that one. I remember my dad freaking out when he found my brother's drugs hidden in their house. Of course, he was a pipe-smoking, bike-riding, car-jacking pot-head, but what he did in his youth has no bearing on what's going on now *cough*. People often too easily forget the follies of their youth.
I admire the fact that the teacher is attempting to find something interesting and new to talk to these kids about. Teachers don't know everything, but the willingness to learn and try new things is what pushes curriculums forward.
how about the women on slashdot? Yeah, yeah, joke if you like that there aren't many, but when you do find one, she's probably more likely to be a gamer than your jane doe off the street.
ok, seriously, I'd hardly say that commenting on a perceived deficincy in th OS is trolling.
While your suggestions DO answer the question of how to eject a CD, and some do seem to be fairly intuitive (file menu, ctrl click), some are WAY out there. And I'm sorry...dragging the CD to the trash bin? that's not intuitive. It may seem like it once you've seen it before, but for a first time user, who would think to do that? the fact that the icon changes doens't help either, since you'd actually have to think to move the thing there before it changed. The CD and the trash bin represent their actual physical counterparts. Who throws out a CD when they are done with it? For that matter, if it looks like an actual file, who would want to put it near the trash bin? To me, it would seem like it would erase the whole thing. Now, obviously it won't, but if we're talking about new users here, how would you expect them to know that?
download an application? use the command line? I mean, yeah, they're valid options, but again...not intuitive. Imagine if you were talking about windows and you suggested that a good way to eject the CD was to download a new app and install it, or fire up the 'ol command line and write some stuff down...people would be all over you, saying how unintuitive windows is, how stupid, blah blah blah. So why would the same arguments work well for the mac? it doesn't. Suggesting that someone should go from a GUI control to a command line or switch into another application just to eject a CD is just ridiculus.
You also seem to suggest that having a cd eject button on the CD drive itself is somehow also a stupid idea. I'd really like to see you justify this one. You need to be right by the drive to put in and take out the CD, so why not have an eject button right on it? So what if people use it because they don't know how to eject from a program? Isn't that what it's there for? So you can eject things? And if this is really such a bad thing, then how, I ask, could you ever suggest that the CD eject button on the mac keyboard is not designed specifically for the same thing?
Look, I'm not trying to bash the mac. It's a great computer, and every time I've sat down to use one I've been so impressed and pleased with how they do things. But it's not perfect. No design is. And yet every time someone suggests there might be something wrong with a mac, there is this huge backlash against them, calling them stupid and uneducated and too dumb to figure out how to use a great machine. And yet, when the SAME comments are made about a windows machine, everyone bashes the OS, saying it's unintuitive and badly designed. Sure, windows has a lot of faults, but mac (and the other OS's) aren't perfect either. They each have their faults and their strengths. Sure it's fashionable to bash windows, but let's at least be a little rational and fair about the whole thing.
Now, I don't know too much about widgets, but, really, if you're looking for a calculator, windows has one too...it's not exactly revolutionary. And if you want it right in plain view, you can create a shortcut and stick it on your desktop. Or right at the top of the start menu.
I 100% agree. I will obsessively re-read my technical papers for grammatical errors, but when I'm stopping for 5 minutes to drop a post on slashdot, it hardly matters to me if I mixed up a few characters.
To be honest, this question seems less like an actual ask slashdot question, and more of a way to air grievances that we've all heard before, and get them posted in a prominent place.
I, personally, am sick of seeing people write well thought out, interesting and informative comments on a page, only to be picked apart because they made a typo. Not only is it rude and arrogant, but it adds nothing to the forum. If you disagree with a post, fine, present your counter-argument, but don't pick apart the poster because they have bad grammar or spelling.
Not only that, but some of us do not live in the US...there are other spellings (Canadian and British forms) and people who do not speak English as a first language, who I'm sure do not need their errors pointed out every time they post.
Maybe some do, but that's not the point. There are a LOT of reports there, and almost certainly not all of them are relased. Especially for some of the older stuff, why would a member of congress bother to release a report unless someone asked for it? People can ask members of congress for the reports, they release them, and then openCRS also grabs a copy.
Woah now, I think you're mixing RIM up with some other company...they did not at ALL start off with a vague idea...the company started out of a product. The guys that started the company were waterloo eng students, and the blackberry came out of a final year project they were working on for school. In fact, they had a product before the company was even an idea.
Personally, I never got into the sims or grand theft auto or any of the MMORPG games. But that's likely less a girl thing than my absolute inability to control characters moving in 3D - I fall off stuff all the time and kill the characters - probably something that can be cured with practice, but I just don't have the patience. Kill off 1 character 15 mins into a level by falling off a platform...well, bad luck, eh? do it 20 times, and it's like "ok...this blows...I'm playing tetris." Of course, that's really not a gender thing - I'm just terrible at it.
On the other hand, I could play puzzle / card games and stuff like that for hours (tetris, the pocap type games, myst in a way, and there was this great game called "the 7th guest" around like 8-10 yrs ago that was fantastic). Sidescrollers too (duke nukem, commander keen...I found an old nintendo emulator 2 years ago and it's STILL going strong) They're repetitve, sure, but not in the same way. I tried out counterstrike for a while, but after ~3 days it got boring. You run out onto the same level like 50 million times, shoot some guys and it's done. Maybe there's somethig I'm missing, but I just don't get it. That's just me though, any other geeky females around here?
ouch. as one of the girls who regularily cruises slashdot, I'd venture to say that we mix just fine, thank you.=)
More on topic though...you are right in a way...there don't seem to be a whole lot of women on slashdot in general (no worries...I know you're out there, but statistically, we're in the minority). Ditto with gaming - it's a rarity to find a girl really into some of these new games. They are out there, but on the whole, I've noticed my friends are MUCH more likely to fiddle around with the older games like tetris or arqanoid, or some of the less action-based games. I'm not sure why - societal thing maybe? who knows. But I personally only know 1 woman who really gets into the first-person shooter or RPG type games, but I can name off like 30 guys off the top of my head who just eat it up. Personally, I lost interest with "shooter" games with DN2 (if that even qualifies), but some of my old DOS based sharewares are still going strong.
When AOL first started out, we had an account with them - parents got the disc from some computer show and installed it. And it was great for like a year. Then, all the sudden, we get this HUGE AOL bill...apparantly we'd been calling a non-toll-free number. Or so they said. Two hours on hold and 3 hours talking to various tech people and no one could tell us why it was saying we were calling this number, since according to their software, it wasn't supposed to be.
Eventually, they decided that someone had gotten a hold of our account password and made the calls from somewhere else. They VERY nicely said they would delete the charges. At this point, I was feeling SUPER guilty about the whole thing becuase I figured someone had hacked me, or I had screwed up somehow. But it was ok - they were going to reset the account, we could call in for the password, no damage done.
Well, we get the bill the next time, and it's the same thing. At this point my parents are FURIOUS because this time it HAS to be my fault. At this point, I have NO idea how this is happeneing...AOL's saying the calls can't be from our computer, but I don't know how someone would have gotten the password. Then I take a closer look - the charges had started the Wed after we had gotten the password changed, but we had not called to get our password from them until the weekend hence...there's no way this was my fault - I didn't even have the password to lose.
Again, we're back on the tech line, and several hours later they finally agree to delete the charges, and then give my mom a lecture on being more careful with passwords. The next day we cancelled our account and I haven't looked back since.
that totally happened to me - not with a computer, but with a guitar. Our house got broken into, but thanks to some observant neighbours who noticed the broken window, the cops were there ~30 minutes after my roommate had left.
Now...it's the middle of the day, and with only 30 minutes to spare, you have GOT to figure that someone was waiting for everyone to leave. Well...the neighbours kids were hanging around the front of the house before my roommate left, and one of the neighbours had noticed them running though the back yard around about 30 minutes later. In fact, the theives even went so far as to leave a nice bottle of cola on the table for us, probably ripe with sweet fingerprints. But the kids never got questioned, and the bottle never got processed. In fact, the cops sat around our house for a full 40 minutes waiting for my roommate to get home and never even went out to ask any of the neighbours if they saw anything. They just gave up and said they would probably never find anything. Even after they CASHED MY PAYCHECK...nothing.
Same thing happened to my friend whose porch got lit on fire. Cops blamed it on vandals, but only after they accused him several times of doing it on his own, even after he explained several times that he could not have possibly lit his porch on fire given that he was not in the city at the time. Same thing there - never talked to anyone, just told them they sure hoped they had good insurance.
Kids got lucky though - not from the cops, but from me. Didn't so much care about the guitar (jokes on them though - the guitar was cheap, but they passed on the petal next to it that was very portable and very decent), didn't even really care about the paycheck (not a big one - part time job, $280 or so). But if they had messed with my computer, I think I definately would have done something more drastic.
Admittedly, it has been a while since I've been running an openBSD box, but we reinstalled every year as they phased out old versions. Guess we could have swung an update, but may as well go for the all, eh? New release at ~6 months, at ~year you get the second and all the sudden your version is going the way of the dodo. Personally, I found that to be a big pain, but I guess it did kind of force me to keep on top of the thing. Took more than 2 mins though.
I think the GP had a good point though - it's nice to run your own box and firewall, but if you're not really requiring a high level of security, sometimes just buying something is good enough and way easier.
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While I'm not sure where the focus of the poster's prgram was, I'm not sure it's fair to say that it can't be spun into an interesting and relevant grad degree.
At my university (U of Guelph in Ontario, Canada), there were several profs doing research in imaging. For my final year project I worked on 3D image reconstruction worked with a prof whose research is in imaging and signal processing. His work is in a number of different areas, working mostly with adaptive or frozen neural netowrks for compression and also for medical imaging (working with the vet school and some hospitals). There's also a lot of work being done with 3D image reconstruction from single-camera sources, doing work on underwater wreckage and pearl harbour video, if I recall correctly. There were also a number of profs (I believe) doing work in medical imaging (the school has a biomedical eng program as well, so it works nicely).
My suggestion would first be to determine what kind of reserach you want to do, and then find a prof who is doing something in your field that you find really interesting. Then contact the prof and say you're interested and want to know if they're looking for students. Then take a good hard look at the policy that the school has in place for international students to make sure that it's actually going to be feasible to go there because grad school in the states (anywhere really) can get expensive if you're coming from out of the country.
I have very little symphathy for people who expect perfection of everyone and go around putting themselves on a high horse. Before you go around making rude comments about someone else's perceived shortcomings, I would like you to honestly state that your server has never gotten hacked, you've never had a computer virus or downloaded a piece of spyware, and never had any sort of computer security accident. I'd be willing to bet the the VAST majority of people on this website have had some peice of computer equipment compromised in some way. And while this isn't desirable, it is certainly understandable - we're not perfect. At some point, everyone is going to install some bad software, click on a bad attachment, forget to close something on their server, be a bit slow off the mark with the patches etc. Mistakes and accidents happen, and it doesn't necessarily mean that the person is stupid or a bad admin.
On a slightly different note, what if the poster was just learning about server administration? Would you be absolutely intolderant of mistakes made there too? Is there no room for a learning curve or do we now expect people to be all-knowing computer geniuses from birth? Tell me honestly that you've never before made a single error and then maybe you'll be allowed to make arrogant and rude remarks to people about how they're not good enough for your high standards.
I hardly think she'd want jewlery that still IS functional. Come on...if thinkgeek can get away with selling geeky t-shirts for girls, why would geeky jewlery not go? Half the fun of wearing accessories is that they add a touch of flair and can turn a boring old outfit into something interesting and fun. If your interests run towards the geeky, why not?
Really depends on taste and interests. Maybe your lady-friend would hate it, but some wouldn't. If you're buying something, chances are good you know how she's going to react. And not all girls would hate it. I've got a ram-chip belt buckle 'cause on day my boyfriend showed up at my house and handed me 4 ram chips from some old junked server he found somewhere. I loved it. On the other hand, if he had shown up with some delicate pink bracelet or something I would have looked at him like he was a nut job.
You've been spying on me? So you're the creepy bastard outside my house.
I'm basically your standard "ick" factor veg-head. I'm sure there were some other reasons back there somewhere too, but mostly just the "ick". I agree...I'm not sure I'd eat this stuff - I know it's not actually killing an animal and all that, but it sounds kinda creepy.
I didn't say "microsoft hardware", I said hardware that was only supported in windows. They only update the drivers for windows. Their diagnostic software is written only in windows. Works just fine in linux with the right libraries, but for this project, windows was the best way to go. and I am NOT saying that that this absolves the company of ANYTHING. What I am saying is that there are times (and this was one of them) that windows is the better option. A lot of the posters on this site seem to think that linux is the answer to every problem, and it is not.
I am aware of Microsoft's history and I do realize that they engage in some pretty shady pratices. But so do a LOT of companies. That doesn't not, on the other hand, mean that every product they turn out it automatically a crappy and useless product. Just because you don't agree with microsoft's practices does not automatically make Linux the best prduct for everything.
Really? What makes you say that? Thanks for blindly making assumptions about my knowledge and my job history. Incidentally, why on earth would you assume that I have no job history? I work for a software company.
Also, why would you assume that a student would be too stupid to understand what system worked best for them?
I have been TA'ing a first year intro to computers class for the past few semesters, and we teach FTP as part of the labs (because we make them do it old style - CLI interface...yeah, we're mean). The first semester was a DISASTER. Combining FTP with some standard unix commands and permissions structures was definately NOT the way to go. They had a really difficult time particularily with the idea of two seperate file systems.
The next semester didn't go so well either, even though we added in a huge section talking about FTP as a virtual line between two computers. Still no good. The next semester: now it's a line between to LOCATIONS on a computer system. Still no good. So last semester we eliminated any discussion of relative directories (that was the major stumbling point - they had a hard time figuring out where they were in 2 different file systems at the same time, especially because we had them duplicate the file structure on the local computer to create their files). We also broke it down into a 3 step process (after startup):
1. Tell the computer where the file is coming from
2. Tell the computer where you want it to put the file
3. Transfer the file
Even after this semester, the students were SO impressed when we showed them winSCP.
My long winded answer is this then: How about winSCP? or a slight variation? You can set up an FTP server (or SCP even if you're getting fancy) and tell people to use that client to access it. If you're ambitious, you could probably even write something to program in the server name. It already accepts saved sessions etc.
Our school used to give res kids who wanted internet access a cd with some stuff on it. It didn't do much - reconfigured the settings to access the netowrk, nothing that couldn't be done by hand. If you bundeled it with something like that, then all the res kids would have access at least. Then just pop up some instructions on a site and you're good to go.
winSCP can be downloaded here: http://winscp.net/eng/index.php
ok, admittedly, this post is a bit inflamatory, and somewhat off-topic, but I do understand the frustration, because I've felt it myself at times.
.NET has frustrated me to the point where a sailor would have been embarassed to hear the words coming out of my mouth, but I don't think they're the evil empire everyone makes them out to be. Just think about it this way...if this was apple, would you feel the same way? Would there be this much hostility?
Obviously, slashdot submissions are driven by the interests of the people that read and contribute to the site. These interests tend to run towards linux and apple and against MS, which produces a definate bias, but that's what happens when a community with strong opinions controls the content.
The frustration mostly comes from the actual comments. I can't tell you how many times I've been called ignorant for using Windows. The fact is (as I believe the parent was sort of trying to say) that there are compelling reasons for using Windows. Our server runs openBSD, and I still use mostly linux for coding, but it just makes sense to check in windows. My last project used hardware that was only supported in windows. Yeah, there were packages available for linux, but what if there were hardware problems? Where would my users get help? Not only that, but design stuff (can't afford a mac right now) and a bunch of games are SO much easier to do in windows. And it's not like this thing is breaking on me left right and center either - I've only had 1 virus in the past 2 years (my own stupidity) and although I occasionally have to wipe some spyware off, it's normally not more than 1 or 2 progams every few months, and I can usually pinpoint where the stuff is from.
Now, don't get me wrong, microsoft products are far from perfect -
Just something to think about...
Well, it's not like you're looking to replace the bone - most prosthetics / joint replacements etc. are artificial. For the doctors, the hard part is sizing, where 3d scanning probably won't be too helpful until we can generate internal scans. For the engineers who develop the actual parts though, 3D scanning is fairly common to use as a modeling tool not just for the development of the prosthetics but also in the development of surgical techniques and tools to repair the bone or actually implant the thing.
Last summer I spent some time working with a friend of mine on his phd research. I didn't get much involved in the actual research part, but he needed some help writing some script programs to do the more tedious analysis, and of course, took the opportunity to run though some of his conference presentations with me, just for kicks. The part of the project I was helping with actually DID use 3D scans of human shoulder samples.
The 3D scans were pulled into a program called Imageware as point clouds. (Imageware an SDRC program - like IDEAS, but for analysis of models rather than creation of models...backwards IDEAS). Part of the analysis I was helping with looked at rate of change of curvature of the bone samples with and without cartilage attached. Basically it helps to model a "standard" joint to develop a artificial joints. The cartilage vs. no cartilage pictures helps out on one of the major areas of his research, which is the analysis of cartilage thickness and placement. Really helpful if you're looking to graft a sample from somewhere else. Cartilage is one of those nasty things that doesn't repair itself too well, so if you screw up your shoulder or get some damage in an area where it's probably a good idea to have a bunch of cartilage, you have to know where to transplant from. Enter the 3D model. Not only that, but a good model allows you to check out new surgical techniques for actually performing the surgery.
yeah, not so sure about that one. I remember my dad freaking out when he found my brother's drugs hidden in their house. Of course, he was a pipe-smoking, bike-riding, car-jacking pot-head, but what he did in his youth has no bearing on what's going on now *cough*. People often too easily forget the follies of their youth.
I admire the fact that the teacher is attempting to find something interesting and new to talk to these kids about. Teachers don't know everything, but the willingness to learn and try new things is what pushes curriculums forward.
how about the women on slashdot? Yeah, yeah, joke if you like that there aren't many, but when you do find one, she's probably more likely to be a gamer than your jane doe off the street.
ok, seriously, I'd hardly say that commenting on a perceived deficincy in th OS is trolling.
While your suggestions DO answer the question of how to eject a CD, and some do seem to be fairly intuitive (file menu, ctrl click), some are WAY out there. And I'm sorry...dragging the CD to the trash bin? that's not intuitive. It may seem like it once you've seen it before, but for a first time user, who would think to do that? the fact that the icon changes doens't help either, since you'd actually have to think to move the thing there before it changed. The CD and the trash bin represent their actual physical counterparts. Who throws out a CD when they are done with it? For that matter, if it looks like an actual file, who would want to put it near the trash bin? To me, it would seem like it would erase the whole thing. Now, obviously it won't, but if we're talking about new users here, how would you expect them to know that?
download an application? use the command line? I mean, yeah, they're valid options, but again...not intuitive. Imagine if you were talking about windows and you suggested that a good way to eject the CD was to download a new app and install it, or fire up the 'ol command line and write some stuff down...people would be all over you, saying how unintuitive windows is, how stupid, blah blah blah. So why would the same arguments work well for the mac? it doesn't. Suggesting that someone should go from a GUI control to a command line or switch into another application just to eject a CD is just ridiculus.
You also seem to suggest that having a cd eject button on the CD drive itself is somehow also a stupid idea. I'd really like to see you justify this one. You need to be right by the drive to put in and take out the CD, so why not have an eject button right on it? So what if people use it because they don't know how to eject from a program? Isn't that what it's there for? So you can eject things? And if this is really such a bad thing, then how, I ask, could you ever suggest that the CD eject button on the mac keyboard is not designed specifically for the same thing?
Look, I'm not trying to bash the mac. It's a great computer, and every time I've sat down to use one I've been so impressed and pleased with how they do things. But it's not perfect. No design is. And yet every time someone suggests there might be something wrong with a mac, there is this huge backlash against them, calling them stupid and uneducated and too dumb to figure out how to use a great machine. And yet, when the SAME comments are made about a windows machine, everyone bashes the OS, saying it's unintuitive and badly designed. Sure, windows has a lot of faults, but mac (and the other OS's) aren't perfect either. They each have their faults and their strengths. Sure it's fashionable to bash windows, but let's at least be a little rational and fair about the whole thing.
Now, I don't know too much about widgets, but, really, if you're looking for a calculator, windows has one too...it's not exactly revolutionary. And if you want it right in plain view, you can create a shortcut and stick it on your desktop. Or right at the top of the start menu.
I 100% agree. I will obsessively re-read my technical papers for grammatical errors, but when I'm stopping for 5 minutes to drop a post on slashdot, it hardly matters to me if I mixed up a few characters.
To be honest, this question seems less like an actual ask slashdot question, and more of a way to air grievances that we've all heard before, and get them posted in a prominent place.
I, personally, am sick of seeing people write well thought out, interesting and informative comments on a page, only to be picked apart because they made a typo. Not only is it rude and arrogant, but it adds nothing to the forum. If you disagree with a post, fine, present your counter-argument, but don't pick apart the poster because they have bad grammar or spelling.
Not only that, but some of us do not live in the US...there are other spellings (Canadian and British forms) and people who do not speak English as a first language, who I'm sure do not need their errors pointed out every time they post.
Maybe some do, but that's not the point. There are a LOT of reports there, and almost certainly not all of them are relased. Especially for some of the older stuff, why would a member of congress bother to release a report unless someone asked for it? People can ask members of congress for the reports, they release them, and then openCRS also grabs a copy.
Woah now, I think you're mixing RIM up with some other company...they did not at ALL start off with a vague idea...the company started out of a product. The guys that started the company were waterloo eng students, and the blackberry came out of a final year project they were working on for school. In fact, they had a product before the company was even an idea.
Personally, I never got into the sims or grand theft auto or any of the MMORPG games. But that's likely less a girl thing than my absolute inability to control characters moving in 3D - I fall off stuff all the time and kill the characters - probably something that can be cured with practice, but I just don't have the patience. Kill off 1 character 15 mins into a level by falling off a platform...well, bad luck, eh? do it 20 times, and it's like "ok...this blows...I'm playing tetris." Of course, that's really not a gender thing - I'm just terrible at it.
On the other hand, I could play puzzle / card games and stuff like that for hours (tetris, the pocap type games, myst in a way, and there was this great game called "the 7th guest" around like 8-10 yrs ago that was fantastic). Sidescrollers too (duke nukem, commander keen...I found an old nintendo emulator 2 years ago and it's STILL going strong) They're repetitve, sure, but not in the same way. I tried out counterstrike for a while, but after ~3 days it got boring. You run out onto the same level like 50 million times, shoot some guys and it's done. Maybe there's somethig I'm missing, but I just don't get it. That's just me though, any other geeky females around here?
ouch. as one of the girls who regularily cruises slashdot, I'd venture to say that we mix just fine, thank you.=)
More on topic though...you are right in a way...there don't seem to be a whole lot of women on slashdot in general (no worries...I know you're out there, but statistically, we're in the minority). Ditto with gaming - it's a rarity to find a girl really into some of these new games. They are out there, but on the whole, I've noticed my friends are MUCH more likely to fiddle around with the older games like tetris or arqanoid, or some of the less action-based games. I'm not sure why - societal thing maybe? who knows. But I personally only know 1 woman who really gets into the first-person shooter or RPG type games, but I can name off like 30 guys off the top of my head who just eat it up. Personally, I lost interest with "shooter" games with DN2 (if that even qualifies), but some of my old DOS based sharewares are still going strong.
...canada
When AOL first started out, we had an account with them - parents got the disc from some computer show and installed it. And it was great for like a year. Then, all the sudden, we get this HUGE AOL bill...apparantly we'd been calling a non-toll-free number. Or so they said. Two hours on hold and 3 hours talking to various tech people and no one could tell us why it was saying we were calling this number, since according to their software, it wasn't supposed to be.
Eventually, they decided that someone had gotten a hold of our account password and made the calls from somewhere else. They VERY nicely said they would delete the charges. At this point, I was feeling SUPER guilty about the whole thing becuase I figured someone had hacked me, or I had screwed up somehow. But it was ok - they were going to reset the account, we could call in for the password, no damage done.
Well, we get the bill the next time, and it's the same thing. At this point my parents are FURIOUS because this time it HAS to be my fault. At this point, I have NO idea how this is happeneing...AOL's saying the calls can't be from our computer, but I don't know how someone would have gotten the password. Then I take a closer look - the charges had started the Wed after we had gotten the password changed, but we had not called to get our password from them until the weekend hence...there's no way this was my fault - I didn't even have the password to lose.
Again, we're back on the tech line, and several hours later they finally agree to delete the charges, and then give my mom a lecture on being more careful with passwords. The next day we cancelled our account and I haven't looked back since.
that totally happened to me - not with a computer, but with a guitar. Our house got broken into, but thanks to some observant neighbours who noticed the broken window, the cops were there ~30 minutes after my roommate had left.
Now...it's the middle of the day, and with only 30 minutes to spare, you have GOT to figure that someone was waiting for everyone to leave. Well...the neighbours kids were hanging around the front of the house before my roommate left, and one of the neighbours had noticed them running though the back yard around about 30 minutes later. In fact, the theives even went so far as to leave a nice bottle of cola on the table for us, probably ripe with sweet fingerprints. But the kids never got questioned, and the bottle never got processed. In fact, the cops sat around our house for a full 40 minutes waiting for my roommate to get home and never even went out to ask any of the neighbours if they saw anything. They just gave up and said they would probably never find anything. Even after they CASHED MY PAYCHECK...nothing.
Same thing happened to my friend whose porch got lit on fire. Cops blamed it on vandals, but only after they accused him several times of doing it on his own, even after he explained several times that he could not have possibly lit his porch on fire given that he was not in the city at the time. Same thing there - never talked to anyone, just told them they sure hoped they had good insurance.
Kids got lucky though - not from the cops, but from me. Didn't so much care about the guitar (jokes on them though - the guitar was cheap, but they passed on the petal next to it that was very portable and very decent), didn't even really care about the paycheck (not a big one - part time job, $280 or so). But if they had messed with my computer, I think I definately would have done something more drastic.
Admittedly, it has been a while since I've been running an openBSD box, but we reinstalled every year as they phased out old versions. Guess we could have swung an update, but may as well go for the all, eh? New release at ~6 months, at ~year you get the second and all the sudden your version is going the way of the dodo. Personally, I found that to be a big pain, but I guess it did kind of force me to keep on top of the thing. Took more than 2 mins though.
I think the GP had a good point though - it's nice to run your own box and firewall, but if you're not really requiring a high level of security, sometimes just buying something is good enough and way easier.