> they're definitely not interested in the student's success
Have you ever been a teacher?
These DBs are different than you think.
I have seen firsthand the school problems,
including missed classes & immigration changes.
Try having student who skips your class often,
but you don't know if it's just your class,
or other classes too, and you can't coordinate
any intervention with any other teachers.
Worse, try having a parent-teacher conference
when you can't even find the parent because
of immigration issues like migrant workers face.
Look, I fear government intrusion too,
but having stood in the teachers shoes,
I think this project may have some merits.
There *are* good teachers who need this.
Your project is admirable and challenging,
affecting politicians and also publishers.
I advised Sun Micro on California ed. projects
and learned K12 reform is complex & mysterious.
I learned that real power is seldom with the politicians,
saving money is seldom sufficient motivation to change,
and state departments and teachers are critical allies.
Feel free to contact me if you need web hosting;
I can give it for free to educational projects.
Mozart & Oz are well-developed and worth a look--
your programming may improve because of them.
Cheers, Joel
p.s. here are quick excerpts:
The Mozart Programming System is an advanced development platform for intelligent, distributed applications. The system is the result of a decade of research in programming language design and implementation, constraint-based inference, distributed computing, and human-computer interfaces...
Mozart is based on the Oz language, which supports declarative programming, object-oriented programming, constraint programming, and concurrency as part of a coherent whole...
We have developed many applications including sophisticated collaborative tools, multi-agent systems, and digital assistants, as well as applications in natural language understanding and knowledge representation, in scheduling and time-tabling, and in placement and configuration.
Sun would have a better chance surviving
if people like Gosling could show Jackpot
and its benefits in a BUSINESS CONTEXT.
- Code gets cleaner, easier to maintain & debug. - Multi-thread scaling areas get easier to spot.
- Profiling tools speed up based on the algebra.
- IT staff in mergers can finally merge apps.
Sure the technology is "cool" and "entertaining"
but these days Sun needs a profit.
Has anyone proven that a well-managed web site actually generates business?
Yes, I have. It substantial pay-offs
in enterprise technical support.
We found this at Sun, when we improved re-use among our enterprise call center tech support our QA, and our marketing release notes.
For example, we improved consistency among
what our marketing website claims as features,
what our customers actually try to do with it,
what QA finds as potential issues or bug fixes,
and what tech support can tell the customer.
This is *enormously* important in the enterprise,
because it gives everyone consistent understanding.
We made our support calls easier,
gave our customers better feedback,
found deployment issues much faster,
and made our marketing more realistic.
PROVE IT to your insurance, employer, and goverment:
bring your car to us and we'll switch your BLACK box
with our WHITE box, always driven under 25 MPH,
always seat-belted, by our team of grandmothers!
Have you heard of Colossus.Net hosting?
Their website is here
I have hosted with them for eight years,
both personally and also professionally
for School.Net and Sun Microsystems.
Pros:
- Definitely the most dependable host I've used.
- Easy to ramp up more bandwidth, disk, speed, etc.
- Most everything you need is automated
- Very fast email support from a real person
Cons:
- Not on the cutting edge (older Slackware, no J2EE)
- No handholding, so you need to know what you're doing
- No marketing fluff, so hard to pitch to your CEO
- Atypical compared to most large ISP hosts.
For comparison I've hosted on everything from
Interland, Exodus, Digex, Geocities, and Rackspace.
Colossus.Net gives the best service IMHO,
and I'm happy to share details with anyone here.
BTW I'm not affiliated except as a satisfied customer.
I don't understand what the fuck this has to do with "your rights online"
I'll sketch a quick picture for you:
1. Massive global corporations refuse repeated requests by their own customers
for convenient ways to download and pay.
2. Instead, these corps collude to fix prices,
impede unsigned artists from radio airplay,
bury studies showing that MP3 helps artists,
and sue alternative distributors into oblivion.
3. These corps lobby for draconian DMCA laws, push for spyware and denial-of-service attacks, force police and DAs to criminalize MP3 trades, use subpoenas and search warrant techniques, and seek terrible shock-and-awe punishments.
4. Many governments call this monopoly abuse,
for a wide range of probable legal reasons.
5. P2P overcomes this monopoly abuse,
even as it enables copyright violations.
So I think the answers are less obvious
than "don't do the crime" like you said.
There are legal twists and turns to this.
Cheers, Joel
Rumor has Apple patenting color-changing for the iPod and iMac, where the iPod body can glow inside with different chaning colors like the Color Kinetics Sauce LED products here
I'm very happy with the Kyocera, the new smartphone from Verizon
IMHO it's worth time looking at individual apps on wireless PDA sites like Handango.
The right apps that fit your needs can make a huge difference in your satisfaction.
Fun geek question of the night:
what do we want in a Sci Fi museum, and why?
I'll get the ball rolling...
I suggest a Star Wars lightsaber, because to me it represents a great story, the fusion of technology and the magic of the Force. Plus I played with them endlessly as a kid.:)
I personally believe the JCP does an admirable job. Does it have room for improvement? Of course. Is it working? For me the answer is yes-- Java gets steadily faster and more useful.
What do you think is a better model for extending and improving a language?
Cheers, Joel
From the JCP homepage: the Java Community Process
is the way the Java platform evolves. It's an open organization of international Java developers and licensees whose charter is to develop and revise Java technology specifications, reference implementations, and technology compatibility kits.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought software internationalization
took some real time to set up initially,
then was easy for each additional language.
What are the technical issues involved?
Thanks, Joel
Your customers want monitoring.
Some outside firm wants to do it.
So what's the real problem here?
Costs for bandwidth and storage.
Thus the simple solution:
tell them both you simply
need your costs covered.
Everyone wins, you look like a hero,
and you save yourself from lawyers.
Good luck! -Joel
Have you ever been a teacher?
These DBs are different than you think.
I have seen firsthand the school problems,
including missed classes & immigration changes.
Try having student who skips your class often,
but you don't know if it's just your class,
or other classes too, and you can't coordinate
any intervention with any other teachers.
Worse, try having a parent-teacher conference
when you can't even find the parent because
of immigration issues like migrant workers face.
Look, I fear government intrusion too,
but having stood in the teachers shoes,
I think this project may have some merits.
There *are* good teachers who need this.
Cheers, Joel
even it fails: the bill encourages dicussion.
ACLU and EFF members will learn more.
The media will write about it, and learn more.
And Congresspeople will read it,
or have their staffers research it,
and maybe learn something.
I thank the EFF and ACLU for this.
And I donate to both of them.
Cheers, Joel
affecting politicians and also publishers.
I advised Sun Micro on California ed. projects
and learned K12 reform is complex & mysterious.
I learned that real power is seldom with the politicians,
saving money is seldom sufficient motivation to change,
and state departments and teachers are critical allies.
Feel free to contact me if you need web hosting;
I can give it for free to educational projects.
Cheers, Joel - joel@school.net
Mozart & Oz are well-developed and worth a look--
your programming may improve because of them.
Cheers, Joel
p.s. here are quick excerpts:
The Mozart Programming System is an advanced development platform for intelligent, distributed applications. The system is the result of a decade of research in programming language design and implementation, constraint-based inference, distributed computing, and human-computer interfaces...
Mozart is based on the Oz language, which supports declarative programming, object-oriented programming, constraint programming, and concurrency as part of a coherent whole...
We have developed many applications including sophisticated collaborative tools, multi-agent systems, and digital assistants, as well as applications in natural language understanding and knowledge representation, in scheduling and time-tabling, and in placement and configuration.
if people like Gosling could show Jackpot
and its benefits in a BUSINESS CONTEXT.
- Code gets cleaner, easier to maintain & debug.
- Multi-thread scaling areas get easier to spot.
- Profiling tools speed up based on the algebra.
- IT staff in mergers can finally merge apps.
Sure the technology is "cool" and "entertaining"
but these days Sun needs a profit.
Cheers, Joel
As a former enterprise software Sun employee,
I wish the Core guys well. They do good work.
One question though: what about the business?
An lot goes into hiring enterprise consulting,
beyond good coding skills-- think of accounting,
insurance, scheduling, dedicated team reps, etc.
More importantly, my number one consideration
was trustworthiness-- including dependability--
so a mass walkout seems like a difficult launch.
Cheers, Joel
Yes, I have. It substantial pay-offs
in enterprise technical support.
We found this at Sun, when we improved re-use
among our enterprise call center tech support
our QA, and our marketing release notes.
For example, we improved consistency among
what our marketing website claims as features,
what our customers actually try to do with it,
what QA finds as potential issues or bug fixes,
and what tech support can tell the customer.
This is *enormously* important in the enterprise,
because it gives everyone consistent understanding.
We made our support calls easier,
gave our customers better feedback,
found deployment issues much faster,
and made our marketing more realistic.
Cheers, Joel
PROVE IT to your insurance, employer, and goverment:
bring your car to us and we'll switch your BLACK box
with our WHITE box, always driven under 25 MPH,
always seat-belted, by our team of grandmothers!
Cheers, Joel
my wrist stays steady while my entire arm moves,
with the buttons on the side at a better angle.
For me, it helps reduce fatigue and tension.
Downside is that tiny motions are trickier,
like it's difficult to hit pixels in Photoshop.
Have you looked at touchpads and rollerballs?
Cheers, Joel
P.S. maybe this page will help you? RSI reviews
ask your car insurance people about radio theft.
Sometimes you can get coverage for players
by telling them in advance that you use it.
Cheers, Joel
Their website is here
I have hosted with them for eight years,
both personally and also professionally
for School.Net and Sun Microsystems.
Pros:
- Definitely the most dependable host I've used.
- Easy to ramp up more bandwidth, disk, speed, etc.
- Most everything you need is automated
- Very fast email support from a real person
Cons:
- Not on the cutting edge (older Slackware, no J2EE)
- No handholding, so you need to know what you're doing
- No marketing fluff, so hard to pitch to your CEO
- Atypical compared to most large ISP hosts.
For comparison I've hosted on everything from
Interland, Exodus, Digex, Geocities, and Rackspace.
Colossus.Net gives the best service IMHO,
and I'm happy to share details with anyone here.
BTW I'm not affiliated except as a satisfied customer.
Cheers, Joel
These are known by mainstream techies today.
Think instead of what these techies do *not* know.
Remember when you first saw email or a web browser?
These apps changed *so* much in our world.
Think in that arena.. what could change so much?
Cheers, Joel
I'll sketch a quick picture for you:
1. Massive global corporations refuse
repeated requests by their own customers
for convenient ways to download and pay.
2. Instead, these corps collude to fix prices,
impede unsigned artists from radio airplay,
bury studies showing that MP3 helps artists,
and sue alternative distributors into oblivion.
3. These corps lobby for draconian DMCA laws,
push for spyware and denial-of-service attacks,
force police and DAs to criminalize MP3 trades,
use subpoenas and search warrant techniques,
and seek terrible shock-and-awe punishments.
4. Many governments call this monopoly abuse,
for a wide range of probable legal reasons.
5. P2P overcomes this monopoly abuse,
even as it enables copyright violations.
So I think the answers are less obvious
than "don't do the crime" like you said.
There are legal twists and turns to this.
Cheers, Joel
and these MP3 problems get worse every week.
If anyone in public office reads this
and can advocate for better solutions,
send me email and I'll donate to you.
If you feel strongly like I do,
try donating to EFF
Cheers, Joel
playtime for a few minutes of "Wow! that's neat."
Have you been to a mall in Asia lately?
Kids do this to mobile phone LED lights.
Any battery drain is minimal for the LED,
and the color light effect is pretty cool.
Apple knows that innovative design
gets attention and can drive sales.
And if it has Vorbis,
I'll buy it immediately.
Cheers, Joel
where the iPod body can glow inside with different chaning colors
like the Color Kinetics Sauce LED products here
Cheers, Joel
I'm very happy with the Kyocera,
the new smartphone from Verizon
IMHO it's worth time looking at individual apps
on wireless PDA sites like Handango.
The right apps that fit your needs can make
a huge difference in your satisfaction.
Cheers, Joel
what do we want in a Sci Fi museum, and why?
I'll get the ball rolling...
I suggest a Star Wars lightsaber, because to me it represents a great story, the fusion of technology and the magic of the Force. Plus I played with them endlessly as a kid. :)
Now it's your turn...
Cheers, Joel
we have a Microsoft Security Whitepaper.
This is 21st century science fiction at its finest!
On your way out, board the flying car on the left.
Cheers, Joel
and I can post it on Slashdot right now,
right after I answer the knock at the door...
Cheers, Joel
Actually, Sun works with a wide range of developers and companies
to improve Java using the Java Community Process
The JCP has hundreds of members listed here
I personally believe the JCP does an admirable job.
Does it have room for improvement? Of course.
Is it working? For me the answer is yes--
Java gets steadily faster and more useful.
What do you think is a better model
for extending and improving a language?
Cheers, Joel
From the JCP homepage:
the Java Community Process is the way the Java platform evolves.
It's an open organization of international Java developers and licensees
whose charter is to develop and revise Java technology specifications,
reference implementations, and technology compatibility kits.
Cheers, Joel
Actually I meet a lot of interesting people that way. They're called customers.
The problem isn't open data, it's that we believe the data can be abused and have terrible real-world consequences.
Here are real examples from the Top 10 Police Database Abuses
Cheers, Joel