This might sound mean... but always look at what you are doing with the question "what can the end user do to mess this up?"
For years I have watched programmers bang their heads against unexpected responses from users. Often accompanied by exclamations of "not even an idiot would do/type/click/think/attempt that!"
So the summary watch phrase would be "expect the unexpected".
... being a long time Waterloo resident and grateful both for what PI does for pure science and what it gives to the community (public lectures, etc)... I am thrilled Steven Hawking would consider coming here to be part of the PI.
Welcome Steven our newest pure science overlord.
I was in a similar position two years ago having given 8 weeks notice (including some holiday time) . I was hoping the company would follow their already established practice of showing IT folks the door after a couple of days. No such luck. I was too trusted and good at my job said HR. They wanted me to work right up to the final day. They even waited until my scheduled last day to bring in the new guy. I found this most annoying. Seems IT is a fickle field to work in. Most management hasn't got a clue and don't want to get a clue. If you are good you get shafted... if you are bad you get bonuses and promoted.
This last point is my observation that good IT people who keep everything running smoothly with preventative work get hosed because management thinks they don't do anything. On the other side IT who foster a crisis environment and are often seen fighting great fires (often caused by their own earlier inaction - because they spend to much time posting on "/."?) get positive recognition from management.
It is a cruel world working in IT.
OK, now flame on people!
I can understand the concern, especially considering the quality and technical savvy of the Royal Canadian Mint. Here is part of the Wiki entry:
"The Mint has been at the forefront of currency innovation. Among the Mint's technical innovations have included its plating process, which consists of a multi-ply technology that allows electromagnetic signatures to be embedded in the coins, assuring readability in the coin-processing industries.[3] Its other innovation was the world's first coloured circulation coin, the 2004 Remembrance Day 25 cent piece, with a red poppy on the reverse. Further innovation was achieved with the adaptation of the Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) technology to coat its dies, extending the life of the die beyond that of past chrome coated dies.[4]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Mint
Now, consider that the mint also makes coins for many other countries, US military contractors and security conscious travelers can be even more paranoid.
By the way, Canadian money is made by and controlled by the Canadian government... Do you know who makes and controls US currency? If you guessed the US government, you should check again.
As the world knows it is cold up here in the Great White North eh! There is usually lots of snow too, eh! Well I can tell you from experience that with all our socialist programs we pay lots of taxes and as a result we don't often end up with folding money, eh! So when your coins go missing it really hurts, eh! Like when you lose a handful of coins in the deep snow, eh! So with RFID coins you just get the portable reader out and scan for the coins to find them, eh! Or, you scan your couch to see if you can afford to order in a pizza with back bacon, eh! You walk in to Harvey's (like McDonald's but much better) and they scan you on the way in and let you know what you can afford, eh!
I provide volunteer IT support in a school and I would love to see the over priced, over engineered, fragile, feature rich, but utility poor machines we currently put in schools replaced by machines along these lines.
Look at what the computers really get used for in our kids classrooms and you start wondering who is really benefiting from them being in there... hint, not the students, think big business.
If I could convince a parent, teacher, principal, or school board to buy OLPC computers with the added benefit of outfitting a student, class, school, or school board in the developing world at the same time... FANTASTIC! Partners in a global community. Where do I sign up?
I work for the worlds largest wholesaler in our industry, and am the only IT person in the Canadain opperation. The company has made some really hard to swallow changes in the last few years and I have just adapted. I felt I had good stress management skills, a fun personality and the ability to let the sh*t people throw and ignorant (sometimes cruel) managers tell you to eat fall off my teflon armour. Well I was wrong and just fooling myself.
Two weeks ago I suffered a health event that my doctor tells me gives me a 30% risk of having a stroke in the next month. This is 100% related to the job I do and the bullsh*t and stress caused by the changes the company has decided to implement and ignorant management.
Needless to say as soon as I am out from under this cloud I will be working somewhere else. In the meantime I am telling people exactly what I think when I think it. I am not internalizing or holding on to any of it.
Consistantly high levels of stress can and will destroy you.
Don't ignore it.
Don't get addicted to it.
Do whatever you can to minimize it.
There is a sad part to the popularity and abuse of medications prescribed for ADD and ADHD. When the medication gets a bad name because of those folks who use it to get an unnatural edge on the competition it makes the parents of Kids who would greatly benefit from the medication hesitate when it is suggested by a qualified specialist MD.
When I was teaching in the public and later private schools a few years ago there were always kids who you suspected would benefit greatly from these meds, but their parents decided they shouldn't. Then of course there were a few kids who really didn't need it, but had it. The hesitation of those parents often came down to how others would perceive their kids when (not if) it became public knowlege that they were using... Sad...
Oddly, I also know there is lots of demand for these meds and the kids who have valid access could make out like bandits...
By the way anyone taking the older versions of these meds should look into a new delivery method sold as concerta... well worth it...
This has prompted four powerful changes to the roads and rules for driving in Canada.
Part one of the solution... Toronto inventor comes to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes. These spikes are specially tuned to allow vehicles to travel at only the approved speed (+- 5%). When a vehicle exceeds this speed limit the tires are shredded and the racing driver is brought to a halt.
Part two of the solution... Toronto inventor comes to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes. These spikes are specially tuned to allow vehicles to travel at only the approved speed (+- 5%). When a vehicle is detected traveling at less than the approved speed limit the tires are shredded and the dumbass driver is brought to a halt.
Part three of the solution... in conjunction with the Toronto inventor coming to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes is the scary video game legislation that requires an RFID tag to be embedded in both the packaging and media for all "Dangerous to the general public good" games. When these games are detected in a vehicle traveling over the road the tires are shredded and the potentially dangerous game playing driver is brought to a halt.
A powerful group of Canadian Senators have taken time off from their research and deliberations on legalizing recreational substances to point out that this system must also have a detector that looks for vehicles traveling with their right turn signal left on. When a vehicle is detected traveling with the blinker on the tires are shredded and the dozy driver is brought to a halt.
In order to bring the police and municipal governments on side a tax of 100% will be added to the price of new tires and shared between the police and all levels of government.
In other news a Toronto inventor invents a run shredded tire made of titanium...
According to a recently shown documentary, lack of exposure to relatively benign bacteria and viruses, necessary to train and condition your immune system seems the source of many autoimmune diseases and allergies. Reminds me of an old Granny's adage "every child needs to eat their peck of dirt".
The show then went on to identify a bacteria sourced from clay taken from a lake in Northern Africa, the name is Mycobacterium vaccae, that can be used to retrain / reset your immune system and greatly help with many of these diseases. The list of diseases it helped with included leprosy, tuberculosis, allergies, asthma, and dozens more. Seems this bacteria shares common proteins with many nasty diseases and when the immune system is exposed to this bacteria it gets trained and conditioned, better able to handle the nasty stuff if exposed to it later.
The bacteria is being developed into a vaccine that is somewhere in the final stages of trails and may be available soon.
With the threat of Avian Flu looming near in our future, and no really effective way to treat this flu, I hope this Dirt Vaccine is made available sooner. My understanding of the flu is that most of the damage is done by our immune system when it goes overactive trying to fight the flu virus. M-vaccae looks like the reset button needed to counter this immune system response.
Hope on the horizon, maybe, but will big pharma be able to kill m-vaccae before it gets to us? After all it is a naturally occurring bacteria that they have no patent on.
For more on this Google "Dirt Vaccine" there are plenty of references.
well worth a look... sciencefriday.com...also check out Ockham's razor, www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/ockham.htm
Easy to get a podcast addiction to this stuff... and they thought pr0n would drive the web...
Understand that there are different learning styles (i.e. auditory, manipulative, visual) and the student population varies widely in its aptitude, focus, motivation, and attention, and that the level of support at home varies widely due to any number of causes.
Now take a teacher in a class with 30 to 40 (or more) students who often have no choice but to spend too much time and resources on the very few individuals who are verbally and physically disruptive. Time that would otherwise be invested in everyone's learning. The teacher who has to balance all the demands placed on the system, the faculty and the students.
Insert the effect of parents, those who are involved, those who aren't and those who actively sabotage their children's learning. Parents who no longer have the time (due to ever worsening employment opportunities, how many part-time jobs can you have) to volunteer in their children's' classroom.
Add to this mix the politicians who like nothing more than to use education as a political football and micromanage particular issues and aspects of education with little understanding or regard for the overall effectiveness of the system.
Oh and don't forget the private agenda's of religious groups.
Finally, include the needs of big business. They no longer want educated competent employees. Now they want mindless sheep to mold into the perfect consumers... "shop 'til you drop".
Here we have a summary of the major players in education. If you are left with the impression that the student may actually be a minor player in education you may be right. Ask your parents how big the primary school was they attended and compare it to the one you attended and look at what your children will see. Likely the school has gone from a community member and an active resource helping the children of the community to grow and learn to be intelligent, thinking, active members of their community, to what we see more of today, the school as an ever growing (economies of scale don't you know) factory turning out product.
So how is this relevant to homework? Homework is not only the way for students who want to excel to do so by reinforcing the material for themselves, but it is also (increasingly) the way for parents to participate in the education of their children. Homework is a slice of curriculum that the student and parent have control over. They can ensure they know it.
By the way I was never fond of homework, sometimes I didn't get it done, and sometimes it really helped me to understand.
The solution is suggested in the article, have everything done in Canadian facilities with strict controls over the data. The next step would be to make it a contract condition that companies doing work with this data must not have any presence in the US, directly or indirectly, or any jurisdiction that supports the patriot act. This has the benefit to Canadian companies to be somewhat protectionist. In case some of you haven't noticed US trans-national corporations are buying up Canadian businesses at an alarming rate. US citizens are also investing in Canadian properties too. Seems they look at us as the safe place to invest their money. After all didn't most of them put Canadian flags on their coats and backpacks when they went travelling during College? Sorry I digressed a bit from the topic... Summary, Canadians really do like and wish the best for the American people, but sometimes we find it hard to like your Governments policies, both internal and external. Most of us find it hard to believe that you allowed so many of your hard won civil rights to be stripped away with so little discussion and thought, the Partiot Act.... God bless and save us all...
I remember one late spring in the 70's, sitting in the back seat cruising down the highway and passing a convoy of steamers. Later they caught up with us at a fuel stop and we had a good look. The driver of one steamer replied to a speed question along these lines "she can go really fast, but we drive at a reasonable speed because of the bugs...". Several of the cars, all open, had dinky windshields and the black flies and mosquitoes must have hurt. They were certainly beautiful works of engineering and style, much nicer than the Ford we were in.
As a CBC Radio listener for the better part of 40 years I can tell you this is just another innovative step in the history of a great public institution. CBC is also known for its great honest and open minded coverage of news. This has been very apparent in the last couple of decades as comercial private media has been gobbled up by massive multinational corporations and given a sanitized, unified, and politically correct editorial viewpoint (according to the disposition of the owners and not always the accuracy of the facts). But possibly best of all the CBC works to inform, educate, motivate its listeners with open and honest coverage of world events... presented from multiple points of view. If anyone would like to hear what the rest of the world is thinking and doing, catch the news and editorials on CBC... By the way, BBC radio does this too.
Two weeks ago today one of the sales force brings in his laptop on a sales meeting day, as previously arranged with me, but instead of giving it directly to me decides to get his mail instead. By the way, did I mention he was bringing it to me to clean the worms and trojans he had picked up from the illegal (in our company) internet connection he decided he had to put on it and use... Yes you guessed it he infected half the machines in the building... All were running McAfee and up to date, but they got it anyway. Once in the network came to a screaming halt with worms, trojans, viruses, spyware, addware, etc... I think I also forgot to mention that particular Monday was day one for month end closing to start... and it also happens to have been year end too.
Those of you who know what the last two weeks were like for me, need no further explanation. Those of you who haven't yet experienced it, well I don't want to scare you. Did I mention yet that I am the only Canadian IT for my company and our 350 or so users... Well let me say that my daughter did the "Daddy, I love you, I thought I had forgotten what you looked like..." speach for me.
Well the best part is that I got hauled into HR last Friday afternoon at 3:45, just as I was about to go out for some lunch (four hours overdue without any breaks since 8 am). The head of HR then informs me that I am scaring the (L)users... the "L" is no longer silent when I think it. Yes you read it right, I am being hauled onto the carpet for scaring the users.
So I ask what is it I am doing that scares them? It turns out that after doing an inventory in the morning of the printing supplies and finding that one of my brain damaged users couldn't read the description on the box, or the labels on the shelf, or event the huge sign that says "If you don't know, ask!" They had opened most of the toner cartridge boxes, pulled the toners out of the bags, and removed the tapes to try them all in their printer... They then tossed the ones that didn't fit back in "a" box and randomly put them on the stock shelf. Before cleaning this up I spent a couple of minutes developing new strings of creative language to explain the origins of the unknown user, and possibly how they deserved to win a Darwin Award. Well I guess I was overheard.
When I get out of the HR office I decided to go home for the weekend... I have had enough and don't want to scare anyone...
So here I sit, tomorrow I return to work after the long weekend, today being Thanksgiving up here, and I am trying to think of how to respond to this unsettling news.
I would appreciate any comments you might suggest......so how do the Darwin awards work...
I am a certified teacher as is my spouse; we both have multiple university degrees, and two school age children.
I have taught in both public and private schools and found both to have good and bad qualities. I agree fully with Gatto (read his work a while ago) about the purpose of public schools and where they are taking our children, to the factory floor (or lower with off-shoring). In the private school I saw the tuition dollar driving educational and advancement decisions, students advanced because the tuition cheque cleared.
If you want to make the most of your student/child's education and give them the opportunity to grow and develop into their full potential remember the following:
1: Parents are the first and most important teachers. Your kids will follow your example; read a book, have a discussion, take a course, learn something new, and do this with them.
2: Know what happens in your student's school (public/private/home); call the principal, visit the teacher, send notes, follow up tests, question policies, etc. Don't let a problem be the first and only reason you talk.
2: When they are in a school you must provide positive support both direct (volunteering) and indirect (reading to kids, having books in the house, shutting off the tv/Nintendo/ps2/computer/etc) participation is paramount.
3: Talk about school with your kids; what did they learn, can they teach it to you?
4: Empower them with their right to a good education, and their responsibilities as a student
5: Take opportunities to expand their worldview; take them out of school for family trips, special events, bonding opportunities.
6: Finally, help them learn to make decisions and then let them make decisions. Yes, they will make mistakes and learn from them and grow...
Of course there is much more you can do. If you do some of what I suggest you will be part of the solution. Of course you may drive some teachers and administrators nuts first and your kids will want you to walk way behind them at the mall...
Slashdot Mirror
So why get your knickers in a knot over this one. We will all use it anyway and the IOC will can go luge themselves...
This might sound mean... but always look at what you are doing with the question "what can the end user do to mess this up?" For years I have watched programmers bang their heads against unexpected responses from users. Often accompanied by exclamations of "not even an idiot would do/type/click/think/attempt that!" So the summary watch phrase would be "expect the unexpected".
... the idea is shot down... Maybe ... Steven you can just visit anytime.
... being a long time Waterloo resident and grateful both for what PI does for pure science and what it gives to the community (public lectures, etc)... I am thrilled Steven Hawking would consider coming here to be part of the PI. Welcome Steven our newest pure science overlord.
never underestimate the bandwidth of a DeHaviland BEAVER full of cd and DVD's...
This is an ill informed thought... If you wanted to set up timebomb scripts or sabotage equipment it would be done before you give any notice...
I was in a similar position two years ago having given 8 weeks notice (including some holiday time) . I was hoping the company would follow their already established practice of showing IT folks the door after a couple of days. No such luck. I was too trusted and good at my job said HR. They wanted me to work right up to the final day. They even waited until my scheduled last day to bring in the new guy. I found this most annoying. Seems IT is a fickle field to work in. Most management hasn't got a clue and don't want to get a clue. If you are good you get shafted... if you are bad you get bonuses and promoted. This last point is my observation that good IT people who keep everything running smoothly with preventative work get hosed because management thinks they don't do anything. On the other side IT who foster a crisis environment and are often seen fighting great fires (often caused by their own earlier inaction - because they spend to much time posting on "/."?) get positive recognition from management. It is a cruel world working in IT. OK, now flame on people!
I can understand the concern, especially considering the quality and technical savvy of the Royal Canadian Mint. Here is part of the Wiki entry:
"The Mint has been at the forefront of currency innovation. Among the Mint's technical innovations have included its plating process, which consists of a multi-ply technology that allows electromagnetic signatures to be embedded in the coins, assuring readability in the coin-processing industries.[3] Its other innovation was the world's first coloured circulation coin, the 2004 Remembrance Day 25 cent piece, with a red poppy on the reverse. Further innovation was achieved with the adaptation of the Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) technology to coat its dies, extending the life of the die beyond that of past chrome coated dies.[4]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Mint
Now, consider that the mint also makes coins for many other countries, US military contractors and security conscious travelers can be even more paranoid.
By the way, Canadian money is made by and controlled by the Canadian government... Do you know who makes and controls US currency? If you guessed the US government, you should check again.
As the world knows it is cold up here in the Great White North eh! There is usually lots of snow too, eh! Well I can tell you from experience that with all our socialist programs we pay lots of taxes and as a result we don't often end up with folding money, eh! So when your coins go missing it really hurts, eh! Like when you lose a handful of coins in the deep snow, eh! So with RFID coins you just get the portable reader out and scan for the coins to find them, eh! Or, you scan your couch to see if you can afford to order in a pizza with back bacon, eh! You walk in to Harvey's (like McDonald's but much better) and they scan you on the way in and let you know what you can afford, eh!
I provide volunteer IT support in a school and I would love to see the over priced, over engineered, fragile, feature rich, but utility poor machines we currently put in schools replaced by machines along these lines.
Look at what the computers really get used for in our kids classrooms and you start wondering who is really benefiting from them being in there... hint, not the students, think big business.
If I could convince a parent, teacher, principal, or school board to buy OLPC computers with the added benefit of outfitting a student, class, school, or school board in the developing world at the same time... FANTASTIC! Partners in a global community. Where do I sign up?
I want dis in my umveee...
I work for the worlds largest wholesaler in our industry, and am the only IT person in the Canadain opperation. The company has made some really hard to swallow changes in the last few years and I have just adapted. I felt I had good stress management skills, a fun personality and the ability to let the sh*t people throw and ignorant (sometimes cruel) managers tell you to eat fall off my teflon armour. Well I was wrong and just fooling myself. Two weeks ago I suffered a health event that my doctor tells me gives me a 30% risk of having a stroke in the next month. This is 100% related to the job I do and the bullsh*t and stress caused by the changes the company has decided to implement and ignorant management. Needless to say as soon as I am out from under this cloud I will be working somewhere else. In the meantime I am telling people exactly what I think when I think it. I am not internalizing or holding on to any of it. Consistantly high levels of stress can and will destroy you. Don't ignore it. Don't get addicted to it. Do whatever you can to minimize it.
There is a sad part to the popularity and abuse of medications prescribed for ADD and ADHD. When the medication gets a bad name because of those folks who use it to get an unnatural edge on the competition it makes the parents of Kids who would greatly benefit from the medication hesitate when it is suggested by a qualified specialist MD.
When I was teaching in the public and later private schools a few years ago there were always kids who you suspected would benefit greatly from these meds, but their parents decided they shouldn't. Then of course there were a few kids who really didn't need it, but had it. The hesitation of those parents often came down to how others would perceive their kids when (not if) it became public knowlege that they were using... Sad...
Oddly, I also know there is lots of demand for these meds and the kids who have valid access could make out like bandits...
By the way anyone taking the older versions of these meds should look into a new delivery method sold as concerta... well worth it...
This has prompted four powerful changes to the roads and rules for driving in Canada. Part one of the solution... Toronto inventor comes to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes. These spikes are specially tuned to allow vehicles to travel at only the approved speed (+- 5%). When a vehicle exceeds this speed limit the tires are shredded and the racing driver is brought to a halt. Part two of the solution ... Toronto inventor comes to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes. These spikes are specially tuned to allow vehicles to travel at only the approved speed (+- 5%). When a vehicle is detected traveling at less than the approved speed limit the tires are shredded and the dumbass driver is brought to a halt.
Part three of the solution ... in conjunction with the Toronto inventor coming to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes is the scary video game legislation that requires an RFID tag to be embedded in both the packaging and media for all "Dangerous to the general public good" games. When these games are detected in a vehicle traveling over the road the tires are shredded and the potentially dangerous game playing driver is brought to a halt.
A powerful group of Canadian Senators have taken time off from their research and deliberations on legalizing recreational substances to point out that this system must also have a detector that looks for vehicles traveling with their right turn signal left on. When a vehicle is detected traveling with the blinker on the tires are shredded and the dozy driver is brought to a halt.
In order to bring the police and municipal governments on side a tax of 100% will be added to the price of new tires and shared between the police and all levels of government.
In other news a Toronto inventor invents a run shredded tire made of titanium...
According to a recently shown documentary, lack of exposure to relatively benign bacteria and viruses, necessary to train and condition your immune system seems the source of many autoimmune diseases and allergies. Reminds me of an old Granny's adage "every child needs to eat their peck of dirt".
The show then went on to identify a bacteria sourced from clay taken from a lake in Northern Africa, the name is Mycobacterium vaccae, that can be used to retrain / reset your immune system and greatly help with many of these diseases. The list of diseases it helped with included leprosy, tuberculosis, allergies, asthma, and dozens more. Seems this bacteria shares common proteins with many nasty diseases and when the immune system is exposed to this bacteria it gets trained and conditioned, better able to handle the nasty stuff if exposed to it later.
The bacteria is being developed into a vaccine that is somewhere in the final stages of trails and may be available soon.
With the threat of Avian Flu looming near in our future, and no really effective way to treat this flu, I hope this Dirt Vaccine is made available sooner. My understanding of the flu is that most of the damage is done by our immune system when it goes overactive trying to fight the flu virus. M-vaccae looks like the reset button needed to counter this immune system response.
Hope on the horizon, maybe, but will big pharma be able to kill m-vaccae before it gets to us? After all it is a naturally occurring bacteria that they have no patent on.
For more on this Google "Dirt Vaccine" there are plenty of references.
well worth a look... sciencefriday.com ...also check out Ockham's razor, www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/ockham.htm
Easy to get a podcast addiction to this stuff... and they thought pr0n would drive the web...
Understand that there are different learning styles (i.e. auditory, manipulative, visual) and the student population varies widely in its aptitude, focus, motivation, and attention, and that the level of support at home varies widely due to any number of causes.
Now take a teacher in a class with 30 to 40 (or more) students who often have no choice but to spend too much time and resources on the very few individuals who are verbally and physically disruptive. Time that would otherwise be invested in everyone's learning. The teacher who has to balance all the demands placed on the system, the faculty and the students.
Insert the effect of parents, those who are involved, those who aren't and those who actively sabotage their children's learning. Parents who no longer have the time (due to ever worsening employment opportunities, how many part-time jobs can you have) to volunteer in their children's' classroom.
Add to this mix the politicians who like nothing more than to use education as a political football and micromanage particular issues and aspects of education with little understanding or regard for the overall effectiveness of the system.
Oh and don't forget the private agenda's of religious groups.
Finally, include the needs of big business. They no longer want educated competent employees. Now they want mindless sheep to mold into the perfect consumers... "shop 'til you drop".
Here we have a summary of the major players in education. If you are left with the impression that the student may actually be a minor player in education you may be right. Ask your parents how big the primary school was they attended and compare it to the one you attended and look at what your children will see. Likely the school has gone from a community member and an active resource helping the children of the community to grow and learn to be intelligent, thinking, active members of their community, to what we see more of today, the school as an ever growing (economies of scale don't you know) factory turning out product.
So how is this relevant to homework? Homework is not only the way for students who want to excel to do so by reinforcing the material for themselves, but it is also (increasingly) the way for parents to participate in the education of their children. Homework is a slice of curriculum that the student and parent have control over. They can ensure they know it.
By the way I was never fond of homework, sometimes I didn't get it done, and sometimes it really helped me to understand.
... seems to be the nature of SCO's whole case...
(the link produced errors when first posted.)
The solution is suggested in the article, have everything done in Canadian facilities with strict controls over the data. The next step would be to make it a contract condition that companies doing work with this data must not have any presence in the US, directly or indirectly, or any jurisdiction that supports the patriot act. This has the benefit to Canadian companies to be somewhat protectionist. In case some of you haven't noticed US trans-national corporations are buying up Canadian businesses at an alarming rate. US citizens are also investing in Canadian properties too. Seems they look at us as the safe place to invest their money. After all didn't most of them put Canadian flags on their coats and backpacks when they went travelling during College? Sorry I digressed a bit from the topic... Summary, Canadians really do like and wish the best for the American people, but sometimes we find it hard to like your Governments policies, both internal and external. Most of us find it hard to believe that you allowed so many of your hard won civil rights to be stripped away with so little discussion and thought, the Partiot Act. ... God bless and save us all...
That is why once you know the nature of a search engine sometimes your true search begins on page 3 or 4 of the given results...
I remember one late spring in the 70's, sitting in the back seat cruising down the highway and passing a convoy of steamers. Later they caught up with us at a fuel stop and we had a good look. The driver of one steamer replied to a speed question along these lines "she can go really fast, but we drive at a reasonable speed because of the bugs...". Several of the cars, all open, had dinky windshields and the black flies and mosquitoes must have hurt. They were certainly beautiful works of engineering and style, much nicer than the Ford we were in.
As a CBC Radio listener for the better part of 40 years I can tell you this is just another innovative step in the history of a great public institution. CBC is also known for its great honest and open minded coverage of news. This has been very apparent in the last couple of decades as comercial private media has been gobbled up by massive multinational corporations and given a sanitized, unified, and politically correct editorial viewpoint (according to the disposition of the owners and not always the accuracy of the facts). But possibly best of all the CBC works to inform, educate, motivate its listeners with open and honest coverage of world events... presented from multiple points of view.
If anyone would like to hear what the rest of the world is thinking and doing, catch the news and editorials on CBC... By the way, BBC radio does this too.
Two weeks ago today one of the sales force brings in his laptop on a sales meeting day, as previously arranged with me, but instead of giving it directly to me decides to get his mail instead. By the way, did I mention he was bringing it to me to clean the worms and trojans he had picked up from the illegal (in our company) internet connection he decided he had to put on it and use... Yes you guessed it he infected half the machines in the building... All were running McAfee and up to date, but they got it anyway. Once in the network came to a screaming halt with worms, trojans, viruses, spyware, addware, etc...
...so how do the Darwin awards work...
I think I also forgot to mention that particular Monday was day one for month end closing to start... and it also happens to have been year end too.
Those of you who know what the last two weeks were like for me, need no further explanation. Those of you who haven't yet experienced it, well I don't want to scare you. Did I mention yet that I am the only Canadian IT for my company and our 350 or so users... Well let me say that my daughter did the "Daddy, I love you, I thought I had forgotten what you looked like..." speach for me.
Well the best part is that I got hauled into HR last Friday afternoon at 3:45, just as I was about to go out for some lunch (four hours overdue without any breaks since 8 am). The head of HR then informs me that I am scaring the (L)users... the "L" is no longer silent when I think it. Yes you read it right, I am being hauled onto the carpet for scaring the users.
So I ask what is it I am doing that scares them? It turns out that after doing an inventory in the morning of the printing supplies and finding that one of my brain damaged users couldn't read the description on the box, or the labels on the shelf, or event the huge sign that says "If you don't know, ask!" They had opened most of the toner cartridge boxes, pulled the toners out of the bags, and removed the tapes to try them all in their printer... They then tossed the ones that didn't fit back in "a" box and randomly put them on the stock shelf. Before cleaning this up I spent a couple of minutes developing new strings of creative language to explain the origins of the unknown user, and possibly how they deserved to win a Darwin Award. Well I guess I was overheard.
When I get out of the HR office I decided to go home for the weekend... I have had enough and don't want to scare anyone...
So here I sit, tomorrow I return to work after the long weekend, today being Thanksgiving up here, and I am trying to think of how to respond to this unsettling news.
I would appreciate any comments you might suggest...
Come on people! Just turn the monster off, tv that is. This is our chance to reclaim our minds, lives, families, communities and country.
...well someone had to say this... right?
It is the medium used to controll us, numb us and turn us into the machines the "man" wants.
I am a certified teacher as is my spouse; we both have multiple university degrees, and two school age children. I have taught in both public and private schools and found both to have good and bad qualities. I agree fully with Gatto (read his work a while ago) about the purpose of public schools and where they are taking our children, to the factory floor (or lower with off-shoring). In the private school I saw the tuition dollar driving educational and advancement decisions, students advanced because the tuition cheque cleared. If you want to make the most of your student/child's education and give them the opportunity to grow and develop into their full potential remember the following: 1: Parents are the first and most important teachers. Your kids will follow your example; read a book, have a discussion, take a course, learn something new, and do this with them. 2: Know what happens in your student's school (public/private/home); call the principal, visit the teacher, send notes, follow up tests, question policies, etc. Don't let a problem be the first and only reason you talk. 2: When they are in a school you must provide positive support both direct (volunteering) and indirect (reading to kids, having books in the house, shutting off the tv/Nintendo/ps2/computer/etc) participation is paramount. 3: Talk about school with your kids; what did they learn, can they teach it to you? 4: Empower them with their right to a good education, and their responsibilities as a student 5: Take opportunities to expand their worldview; take them out of school for family trips, special events, bonding opportunities. 6: Finally, help them learn to make decisions and then let them make decisions. Yes, they will make mistakes and learn from them and grow... Of course there is much more you can do. If you do some of what I suggest you will be part of the solution. Of course you may drive some teachers and administrators nuts first and your kids will want you to walk way behind them at the mall...