I disagree. First of all, 'technology' is too broad a term for what you're describing, which is really nothing more than computer literacy. Technology encompasses pretty much every scientific and engineering advancement made since, well, ever. The fork is a product of technology, as is the Spinning Jenny, and the tennis ball, and double-pane windows, and...
I believe that computer literacy is important, and I agree that competent teachers should be hired to teach the subject, but giving it the same importance as language, history, or mathematics is overkill and IMO detrimental. Any knowledge gained in the realm of computer use is sure to be outdated within the next decade because computers are still in their infancy. If a whole curriculum were to be put into place, we would end up with the equivalent of giving students science books from the '70s because the field moves faster than the administrative engines of our schools. Sure, you can still learn important things, but you're going to miss out on stuff that's happened in the intervening years.
I think that in the coming years two things will happen. First, kids will be computer literate simply by being immersed in their use - we are seeing this to an extent today. Second, computers will become easier to use as we continue to make design and interface improvements. They'll never be transparent to the general populace in much the same way that cars aren't today: their use is accepted and widespread, but when they break or when something new is desired a specialist (or hobbyist) must be consulted.
A high-school curriculum built around deeper concepts of computing, like an advanced automotive curriculum, would be hard and useless to 90% of the students forced to follow it. A class or two on computer safety, on the other hand, would be much like the Highway Safety courses offered by many high schools today: relatively lightweight, but enough information to improve the web for everyone through decreasing the spread of malware, viruses, etc.
Five comments in this story (and counting!) from thegameiam, and four contain links to KIRK'S CASTLE SOAP. I don't think the story is a marketing ploy, but I'm beginning to think that user may be a KIRK'S CASTLE SOAP employee.
Hey, your link makes it look like you know what you're talking about. If you've got a Purdue English page backing you up, you must be right.
Except...what's this?
Don't use apostrophes for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals.
Apostrophes should not be used with possessive pronouns because possessive pronouns already show possession -- they don't need an apostrophe. His, her, its, my, yours, ours are all possessive pronouns. Next time try reading your own links.
Item 1:
"I gave a speech once," he said suddenly, and apparently unconnectedly. "You may not instantly see why I bring the subject up, but that is because my mind works so phenomenally fast, and I am at a rough estimate thirty billion times more intelligent than you. Let me give you an example. Think of a number, any number."
"Er, five," said the mattress.
"Wrong," said Marvin. "You see?" Item 2:
"That's a pity," said Arthur. "I'd like to hear what he had to say. Presumably he would know what the Ultimate Question to the Ultimate Answer is. It's always bothered me that we never found out."
"Think of a number," said the computer, " any number."
TrES-4 is an apt name for the planet. If "TrES" is read as the French word "très," and the digit 4 as the English "four," the resulting phrase is close to the French "très fort" which translates to something like "very extreme(ly)."
Keep in mind that I have next to no knowledge of French and only recognize the phrase "très fort" because of Space Ghost..."Je parle français très fort, no?"
(lameness filter encountered. I suppose the mods will decide if it's accurate or not. Personally, I think this parenthetical bit ruins the joke. Lame.)
And don't forget the sight gags! From Al putting a dog in the punch bowl without a second thought to Noodles the dwarven cameraman, from the blind guy solving a Rubik's cube to pretty much all of Michael Richards' antics, you'd laugh almost as hard even with the sound off.
But don't turn the sound off.
One of my favorite parts has to be Raul's Wild Kingdom: "Check out my ant farm! Ants are amazing creatures who can carry up to 50 times their own weight! They spend weeks building these intricate little tunnels...and oh yeah! They HATE it when you do this!"
Actually, Zero Wing ain't a bad game. It's a run-of-the-mill shooter whose horrible translation propelled it to something parallel to greatness, so in that you are correct. But the article is specifically talking about bad gameplay, and "take off every zig" has nothing to do with that.
"Pruning is the removal or reduction of certain plant parts that are not required, that are no longer effective, or that are of no use to the plant. It is done to supply additional energy for the development of flowers, fruits, and limbs that remain on the plant. Pruning essentially involves removing plant parts to improve the health, landscape effect, or value of the plant."
Those of us concerned with the effectiveness and beauty of language realize that word meanings certainly can and do change. We feel responsible, however, for ensuring that the changes are beneficial in some way, be it more concise communication or a more beautiful expressiveness (which may sometimes be at odds with each other, but that's what keeps things interesting).
In this case, "begs the question" is a useful phrase with a specific meaning pertaining to logic. If it becomes co-opted to mean "raises the question", then we will have lost a useful part of our language. Granted, it is not a huge loss and the use of this phrase in its original meaning is relatively rare (save between philosophers and logicians), but its preservation is not something to be derided. Don't act like we're ruining your fun - you certainly don't have to listen to us, though we believe it would be to your benefit to do so. The meanings are in question; we are simply pushing for retaining the old while you are opting for accepting the new...just another in the long series of human disagreements.
(To be clear, 'you' in this post refers not specifically to the parent poster but to those opposed to the efforts of language caretakers.)
After I read the article and the document, a chilling thought occurred: If the RIAA knows that certain people have the means to turn and fight, will they then concentrate their efforts on those people without the means? That would be students, children, the elderly, people just starting their careers, people working at lower-paying jobs. And this would differ from what they've been doing...how?
I like the (2D) Metroid philosophy even more: make it possible (but tricky!) to avoid getting the upgrades and equipment that toughens you up. For those who want a real challenge in boss fights, there's the option of a 2% run, speed run, etc. For those who want a challenge in exploration, there's the 100% run. And for those like me who seldom have an interest in , there's a damn fine game in between all that that I can enjoy at my own pace.
Nothing wrong with a fresh sequel. It's when they re-use story/graphics/maps/levels/etc wholesale that it becomes a ripoff [e.g. bomberman 1 vs. 2]. Or Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden Black, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. How many times will they sell the same game?
...with dried spaghetti... I am SO SICK of you FSM loonies hijacking our rational scientific discussions to push your Pastafarian agenda! Every time some new discovery comes up, you guys aren't far behind, spouting about great noodly appendages and whatnot. Mod parent down to avoid yet another stupid creati--er, spaghetti vs. science flamewar!...oh, you meant regular spaghetti? My bad.
Right, because those who will click the link before reading the entirety of gp's comment will certainly read YOUR nested comment before clicking the link.;)
Ye gods! That EDA site is fugly. There may important information about this bill in there somewhere, but if so it's masked by hideous site design. Here's a tip: if you're linking to a site with a ton of extraneous information, provide a direct link to the relevant bits that you want us to see. Bonus points for a summary in your comment. Linking to the front page of a site like that is akin to telling me about a very important article about computers from a few weeks ago on Slashdot - it's not on the front page and there's no way I'll find it using the search box.
Anyway, I managed to find some bullet points here (by clicking mostly at random) that are some of opponents' concerns, though I confess I didn't read the article that may put them into context:
* The bill violates state sovereignty and cements control over the nation's voting systems in the hands of four white house appointees. * The bill codifies into federal law the use of secret vote counting technologies in the United States of America. * The bill mandates impossible, ineffective and controversial audit and reporting requirements and timetables. * The bill confuses technology with democracy, embracing the tenets of the one over the other. * The bill furthers the misguided and undemocratic direction initiated with the Help America Vote Act that replaces observable voting with verifiable voting
It's sad, but I think today's youth take technology for granted and I don't think today's youth would have been as interested in his show. Part of his appeal was that he did all of this fantastic stuff, but he always kept his cool. Instead of jumping around like a maniac (Bill Nye?), he treated his assistants and the audience as the intelligent young people that they were. If you look at today's teenagers, you're correct in that they likely wouldn't be as interested simply because they weren't exposed to experimentation when they were young. But today's younger kids, say 6-12, whose minds are still very malleable, would in all probability be as fascinated as we were.
I think one of the main reasons kids take tech for granted is because they see us taking it for granted. A large portion of the Slashdot community has no doubt looked into the processes behind the tech we use, but we seem to be in the minority. If we don't take the initiative to pass on our knowledge to young'uns, our numbers will only dwindle further. Mr. Wizard was able to do so with an audience of millions, which most of us will never achieve. That doesn't mean we can't encourage the kids we know to wonder about the world they are in.
And for those interested in the depth of that cave, it is estimated to be ~130 meters. Additionally, temperatures inside these openings (of which there are seven) appear to be more stable than on the surface.
I recently encountered a theory that claims that our brains are essentially holograms. From wikipedia:
...information about an image point is distributed throughout the hologram, such that each piece of the hologram contains some information about the entire image... And from The Holographic Universe (which may or may not be hogwash):
Our uncanny ability to quickly retrieve whatever information we need from the enormous store of our memories becomes more understandable if the brain functions according to holographic principles. If a friend asks you to tell him what comes to mind when he says the word "zebra", you do not have to clumsily sort back through one gigantic and cerebral alphabetic file to arrive at an answer. Instead, associations like "striped", "horselike", and "animal native to Africa" all pop into your head instantly.
Indeed, one of the most amazing things about the human thinking process is that every piece of information seems instantly cross-correlated with every other piece of information--another feature intrinsic to the hologram. Because every portion of a hologram is infinitely interconnected with ever other portion, it is perhaps nature's supreme example of a cross-correlated system. (I know next to nothing about holograms and neuroscience, so take this for the speculative quote-cribbing it is)
I happen to live on the border of Amish Country, so I flagged down a few buggies and eventually got two Amish farmers, Samuel and Amos Stoltzfus (no relation), to agree to the testing. Here are my results.
1 office stuff (write letters print stuff maybe whip up a spreadsheet ): Samuel has kin in Ohio and is a prolific letter writer. Amos' printing was much more legible, but Samuel's cursive was simply marvelous. He is quite talented at long, descriptive narratives that retained my interest while Amos couldn't even think of anything to write about without prompting from me. He also misunderstood the meaning of "spreadsheet" and had half of his fields fertilized before I realized there had been some miscommunication. This round goes to Samuel.
2 Online stuff (email and surfing): Neither had anything better than a phone line in their barns. I was able to (slowly!) retrieve my email on Amos' dial-up connection, but surfing was out of the question as he thought he was already over his bandwidth limit. Here he made some comment about websites that helped him churn his own butter, but I didn't quite follow. Since Amos was the only one with a web connection, he gets this round by default (even though he's using Windows ME...ugh).
3 Multimedia (cds and DVDs): Amos told me of a collection of butter churning DVDs he keeps hidden in the loft, and wanted to know if I'd like to see them. Sounds rather boring to me, so I passed. Samuel actually has an iPod, so though it isn't optical media as your category suggested I think he's the clear winner of this round. (OK, truth is his good sense of humor is what really wins him the round -- he has "Amish Paradise" from Weird Al on the iPod and laughs out loud at the "technologically impaired" line. The irony wasn't lost on him, either.)
4. General Look and Feel: No real differences here; both were traditionally dressed in black with magnificent, geek-envy-inducing beards. When asked, "How do you feel?" each responded positively though Samuel's reply was significantly peppier. I could tell he was actually quite bored with this nonsense and lying through his teeth, which is a sin, so Amos wins this round.
We never got to the fifth category because the sun set and there was some work that needed doing. As you can see, this puts me in an awkward position as Samuel and Amos are tied 2-2, and I hate inconclusive results. In a last-ditch effort to determine a winner, I asked them each which OS they prefer. After a bit of explanation, Samuel went with MacOS X because of his iPod and Amos with Windows because that's what he uses. Now I'm not sure if I should give props to Amos for being honest and actually using his preferred OS, or to Samuel for his choice of a trendy Apple product while looking damn near to a real-life iPod silhouette.
In the end, I suppose it's a choice that each of us must make, and we must keep in mind that different circumstances and needs will result in different answers for different people. -f
Slashdot Mirror
But, surely it's better than the cathedral!
I disagree. First of all, 'technology' is too broad a term for what you're describing, which is really nothing more than computer literacy. Technology encompasses pretty much every scientific and engineering advancement made since, well, ever. The fork is a product of technology, as is the Spinning Jenny, and the tennis ball, and double-pane windows, and...
I believe that computer literacy is important, and I agree that competent teachers should be hired to teach the subject, but giving it the same importance as language, history, or mathematics is overkill and IMO detrimental. Any knowledge gained in the realm of computer use is sure to be outdated within the next decade because computers are still in their infancy. If a whole curriculum were to be put into place, we would end up with the equivalent of giving students science books from the '70s because the field moves faster than the administrative engines of our schools. Sure, you can still learn important things, but you're going to miss out on stuff that's happened in the intervening years.
I think that in the coming years two things will happen. First, kids will be computer literate simply by being immersed in their use - we are seeing this to an extent today. Second, computers will become easier to use as we continue to make design and interface improvements. They'll never be transparent to the general populace in much the same way that cars aren't today: their use is accepted and widespread, but when they break or when something new is desired a specialist (or hobbyist) must be consulted.
A high-school curriculum built around deeper concepts of computing, like an advanced automotive curriculum, would be hard and useless to 90% of the students forced to follow it. A class or two on computer safety, on the other hand, would be much like the Highway Safety courses offered by many high schools today: relatively lightweight, but enough information to improve the web for everyone through decreasing the spread of malware, viruses, etc.
Five comments in this story (and counting!) from thegameiam, and four contain links to KIRK'S CASTLE SOAP. I don't think the story is a marketing ploy, but I'm beginning to think that user may be a KIRK'S CASTLE SOAP employee.
Except...what's this? Don't use apostrophes for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals.
Apostrophes should not be used with possessive pronouns because possessive pronouns already show possession -- they don't need an apostrophe. His, her, its, my, yours, ours are all possessive pronouns. Next time try reading your own links.
"Er, five," said the mattress.
"Wrong," said Marvin. "You see?" Item 2: "That's a pity," said Arthur. "I'd like to hear what he had to say. Presumably he would know what the Ultimate Question to the Ultimate Answer is. It's always bothered me that we never found out."
"Think of a number," said the computer, " any number."
TrES-4 is an apt name for the planet. If "TrES" is read as the French word "très," and the digit 4 as the English "four," the resulting phrase is close to the French "très fort" which translates to something like "very extreme(ly)."
Keep in mind that I have next to no knowledge of French and only recognize the phrase "très fort" because of Space Ghost..."Je parle français très fort, no?"
IN A.D. 2101, WAR WAS BEGINNING
(lameness filter encountered. I suppose the mods will decide if it's accurate or not. Personally, I think this parenthetical bit ruins the joke. Lame.)
And don't forget the sight gags! From Al putting a dog in the punch bowl without a second thought to Noodles the dwarven cameraman, from the blind guy solving a Rubik's cube to pretty much all of Michael Richards' antics, you'd laugh almost as hard even with the sound off.
But don't turn the sound off.
One of my favorite parts has to be Raul's Wild Kingdom: "Check out my ant farm! Ants are amazing creatures who can carry up to 50 times their own weight! They spend weeks building these intricate little tunnels...and oh yeah! They HATE it when you do this!"
*shake* *shake* *shake* *shake* *shake* *shake*
"Oh look! They're reeeally mad now!"
lol i think you meant 'weird'
=)
kbye
Some of us choose not to rejoice in war at all. Some of us are looking for a better way.
Actually, Zero Wing ain't a bad game. It's a run-of-the-mill shooter whose horrible translation propelled it to something parallel to greatness, so in that you are correct. But the article is specifically talking about bad gameplay, and "take off every zig" has nothing to do with that.
"Pruning is the removal or reduction of certain plant parts that are not required, that are no longer effective, or that are of no use to the plant. It is done to supply additional energy for the development of flowers, fruits, and limbs that remain on the plant. Pruning essentially involves removing plant parts to improve the health, landscape effect, or value of the plant."
Those of us concerned with the effectiveness and beauty of language realize that word meanings certainly can and do change. We feel responsible, however, for ensuring that the changes are beneficial in some way, be it more concise communication or a more beautiful expressiveness (which may sometimes be at odds with each other, but that's what keeps things interesting).
In this case, "begs the question" is a useful phrase with a specific meaning pertaining to logic. If it becomes co-opted to mean "raises the question", then we will have lost a useful part of our language. Granted, it is not a huge loss and the use of this phrase in its original meaning is relatively rare (save between philosophers and logicians), but its preservation is not something to be derided. Don't act like we're ruining your fun - you certainly don't have to listen to us, though we believe it would be to your benefit to do so. The meanings are in question; we are simply pushing for retaining the old while you are opting for accepting the new...just another in the long series of human disagreements.
(To be clear, 'you' in this post refers not specifically to the parent poster but to those opposed to the efforts of language caretakers.)
I like the (2D) Metroid philosophy even more: make it possible (but tricky!) to avoid getting the upgrades and equipment that toughens you up. For those who want a real challenge in boss fights, there's the option of a 2% run, speed run, etc. For those who want a challenge in exploration, there's the 100% run. And for those like me who seldom have an interest in , there's a damn fine game in between all that that I can enjoy at my own pace.
I think you a key word in that sentence...
...with dried spaghetti... I am SO SICK of you FSM loonies hijacking our rational scientific discussions to push your Pastafarian agenda! Every time some new discovery comes up, you guys aren't far behind, spouting about great noodly appendages and whatnot. Mod parent down to avoid yet another stupid creati--er, spaghetti vs. science flamewar!Right, because those who will click the link before reading the entirety of gp's comment will certainly read YOUR nested comment before clicking the link. ;)
Ye gods! That EDA site is fugly. There may important information about this bill in there somewhere, but if so it's masked by hideous site design. Here's a tip: if you're linking to a site with a ton of extraneous information, provide a direct link to the relevant bits that you want us to see. Bonus points for a summary in your comment. Linking to the front page of a site like that is akin to telling me about a very important article about computers from a few weeks ago on Slashdot - it's not on the front page and there's no way I'll find it using the search box.
Anyway, I managed to find some bullet points here (by clicking mostly at random) that are some of opponents' concerns, though I confess I didn't read the article that may put them into context:
* The bill violates state sovereignty and cements control over the nation's voting systems in the hands of four white house appointees.
* The bill codifies into federal law the use of secret vote counting technologies in the United States of America.
* The bill mandates impossible, ineffective and controversial audit and reporting requirements and timetables.
* The bill confuses technology with democracy, embracing the tenets of the one over the other.
* The bill furthers the misguided and undemocratic direction initiated with the Help America Vote Act that replaces observable voting with verifiable voting
-f
I think one of the main reasons kids take tech for granted is because they see us taking it for granted. A large portion of the Slashdot community has no doubt looked into the processes behind the tech we use, but we seem to be in the minority. If we don't take the initiative to pass on our knowledge to young'uns, our numbers will only dwindle further. Mr. Wizard was able to do so with an audience of millions, which most of us will never achieve. That doesn't mean we can't encourage the kids we know to wonder about the world they are in.
And for those interested in the depth of that cave, it is estimated to be ~130 meters. Additionally, temperatures inside these openings (of which there are seven) appear to be more stable than on the surface.
...information about an image point is distributed throughout the hologram, such that each piece of the hologram contains some information about the entire image... And from The Holographic Universe (which may or may not be hogwash): Our uncanny ability to quickly retrieve whatever information we need from the enormous store of our memories becomes more understandable if the brain functions according to holographic principles. If a friend asks you to tell him what comes to mind when he says the word "zebra", you do not have to clumsily sort back through one gigantic and cerebral alphabetic file to arrive at an answer. Instead, associations like "striped", "horselike", and "animal native to Africa" all pop into your head instantly.Indeed, one of the most amazing things about the human thinking process is that every piece of information seems instantly cross-correlated with every other piece of information--another feature intrinsic to the hologram. Because every portion of a hologram is infinitely interconnected with ever other portion, it is perhaps nature's supreme example of a cross-correlated system. (I know next to nothing about holograms and neuroscience, so take this for the speculative quote-cribbing it is)
I happen to live on the border of Amish Country, so I flagged down a few buggies and eventually got two Amish farmers, Samuel and Amos Stoltzfus (no relation), to agree to the testing. Here are my results.
1 office stuff (write letters print stuff maybe whip up a spreadsheet ):
Samuel has kin in Ohio and is a prolific letter writer. Amos' printing was much more legible, but Samuel's cursive was simply marvelous. He is quite talented at long, descriptive narratives that retained my interest while Amos couldn't even think of anything to write about without prompting from me. He also misunderstood the meaning of "spreadsheet" and had half of his fields fertilized before I realized there had been some miscommunication. This round goes to Samuel.
2 Online stuff (email and surfing):
Neither had anything better than a phone line in their barns. I was able to (slowly!) retrieve my email on Amos' dial-up connection, but surfing was out of the question as he thought he was already over his bandwidth limit. Here he made some comment about websites that helped him churn his own butter, but I didn't quite follow. Since Amos was the only one with a web connection, he gets this round by default (even though he's using Windows ME...ugh).
3 Multimedia (cds and DVDs):
Amos told me of a collection of butter churning DVDs he keeps hidden in the loft, and wanted to know if I'd like to see them. Sounds rather boring to me, so I passed. Samuel actually has an iPod, so though it isn't optical media as your category suggested I think he's the clear winner of this round. (OK, truth is his good sense of humor is what really wins him the round -- he has "Amish Paradise" from Weird Al on the iPod and laughs out loud at the "technologically impaired" line. The irony wasn't lost on him, either.)
4. General Look and Feel: No real differences here; both were traditionally dressed in black with magnificent, geek-envy-inducing beards. When asked, "How do you feel?" each responded positively though Samuel's reply was significantly peppier. I could tell he was actually quite bored with this nonsense and lying through his teeth, which is a sin, so Amos wins this round.
We never got to the fifth category because the sun set and there was some work that needed doing. As you can see, this puts me in an awkward position as Samuel and Amos are tied 2-2, and I hate inconclusive results. In a last-ditch effort to determine a winner, I asked them each which OS they prefer. After a bit of explanation, Samuel went with MacOS X because of his iPod and Amos with Windows because that's what he uses. Now I'm not sure if I should give props to Amos for being honest and actually using his preferred OS, or to Samuel for his choice of a trendy Apple product while looking damn near to a real-life iPod silhouette.
In the end, I suppose it's a choice that each of us must make, and we must keep in mind that different circumstances and needs will result in different answers for different people.
-f