I've used cash for all of the above except buying a bus ticket b/c I don't ride buses. Even fast food places have credit card swipers. Hell, Sonic has a credit card reader at the drive up menu. And yes at bars, you start up a tab on your card and it only gets swiped once, not for each drink. Not a big deal. I hardly ever use cash; I don't think there are many places at all were credit cards aren't an option anymore except maybe a vending machine. I even use a credit card to buy things at Goodwill! Us young'uns don't use cash for much anymore. I typically don't even carry more than 20 dollars.
However, I am not disputing the point that the US should differentiate the bills to be discernible for the blind. That's fine. Just disputing your argument's basis.
No university I know of sends a copy of your grades to your parents. Actually, they do not mail grades at all at my university unless you specifically request it because they aren't gonna waste the paper unless you want it. Your grades are posted online anyway. The school doesn't know who is paying your bills. If you're 18, I don't think they can send your grades to anyone, even your parents, unless you give them permission, as far as I know.
But USB keys are still more reliable than floppies. I know someone that washed theirs in the washing machine b/c they left it in their pocket by accident, and it still works fine. I have found one in the parking lot somewhere that someone apparently dropped, it was raining, possibly had gotten run over by other cars... and it still works. Would an old floppy hold up to that kind of treatment? I seriously doubt it. I used to have floppies in my school bag get screwed up b/c a paper would get shoved b/w that metal thing that slides and damage the magnetic dealy inside. They are just so fragile, you had to get little plastic cases to hold them and it's just such a pain. I use my USB key all the time b/c it holds ALL my files... before I used to carry like 6 floppies and couldn't save some files on it b/c they wouldn't fit. Not a problem now.
Yeah floppies are still good for some things. I wouldn't order a new desktop without one at this point. I would never get a laptop with one though (mine doesn't) b/c a usb key works much better and a floppy drive on a laptop = weight. But having a floppy drive on a desktop doesn't hurt anything.
I use my right hand to type the letter B also!! I could never use those stupid split keyboards because of that. Also, they take up way too much desk space. But, the reason why I type the B with my right hand is because I taught myself how to type when I was in 3rd grade (8 years oldish), and was always tiny for my age when I was young. My left finger couldn't REACH the B key but my right one could much easier so I just used my right index finger instead of the left, even though my typing programs said to use the other. I didn't really ever learn to type the numbers properly because when I was little my tiny fingers had no hope of reaching that far. I've kind of taught myself how to now, but I will never be as fast with the numbers as I am with the letters. (except if I'm using the numpad)
But, I think kids should be taught how to type at a young age (way before high school, like 4th grade or something). I can comfortably type at about 95 WPM (I just took a couple of those tests a previous poster linked to) and I've been typing for almost as long as I can remember it seems.. it comes as naturally as riding a bike or walking.
Naw, the worst thing about fireworks shows are the mosquitos. At least in the summer in Louisiana... We used to stay in our car or wear pants in the 80 degree muggy night to combat the darned mosquitos to see the 4th of July show.
Um, at my college, the ONLY internet option you have is the university network. If you want internet in your place of residence (dorm, on campus apartment), it's the only thing available. No cable or DSL is run in the dorms! You might could use dialup through the phone lines I suppose, but that is so slow. And, frankly, I can not live without the internet, so I have to deal with the warzone of the university network. And a warzone it is indeed, I got a virus my freshman year that wiped my hard drive from the stupid network. And the network is SOOO clogged from idiots with worms and crap. My internet service was soooo poor at the end of the semester that I couldn't even stay signed on AIM for more than 10 or 15 minutes. I spent hours on the phone with computing services, and a few days later they found some idiot in my dorm that was generating more traffic than 4 dorms worth should (probably with one of those email worms or whatever).
Then, it got better for awhile, but the network got bad again. Hours with computing services on the phone later... they insist that I have a virus or hardware problem. I knew there was nothing wrong with my computer, it worked fine when I had it home over break, and I do my updates and run a firewall and such. I only had a week left of class at this point before the end of the semester, so I just dealt with having internet maybe 50% of the time (which is traumatic for me). But sure enough, when I got home with my computer, NOTHING was wrong with it, the internet was fine. What I think was wrong with it was ppl with worms... Zone Alarm would pick up dozens of port scans every minute... and I tried to tell computing services the IPs of those doing it, but they would have none of that.
In summary, college networks need to do something about this. I wonder why they don't just run cable or dsl to the rooms instead of dealing with this network jazz. I guess it would be more expensive, but I would rather pay more for reliable internet service myself. They are supposedly going to make more stringent requirements next year, but if they make me do some autoupdater crap I won't like that idea. I'm not sure what a good solution would be, but something needs to be done.
This is a very legitamite point. One time on a family vacation (though this was almost 10 years ago, I somehow doubt it is any different now) I was a little kid and we went through the whole state of Mississippi on the way back from Tennessee and every single rest area sign had NO RESTROOMS printed under it. I had to go really bad. Everytime we'd pass an exit that said it had a fast food place or something, we'd get off and it would say: Burger King 15 miles to the left. No way would my parents drive 30 miles out the way for a bathroom. So we finally see a rest area sign that does not say NO RESTROOMS. Of course, it has no restrooms once we drive into it. By this time, we all have to go really bad so we go in the woods. And lo and behold, there is so much toilet paper on the ground it looks like it snowed.
I guess in Mississippi the bathroom is the woods. Hehe. They may have added on more restrooms to their rest areas since I've been through there of course, but if it's still like that, they definitely need to fix that before they think about Wi-Fi.
There is a solution to the dragging the good students down part. My high school implemented it and I know LOTS other do too.
It was called honors classes. You had to have a certain grade in your classes in junior high, certain standardized test scores, and/or teacher recommendations to get in them. So, basically the cream of the crop of the students go into these honors classes. I LOVED them because you were surrounded by students that actually cared about school and there was no misbehavior, at least rarely, in honors classes. Now regular classes, like electivies, god I hated those. They were full of morons and it was annoying. But honors classes really do work. They were excellent college prep too. I remember my freshman English teacher handing us a syllabus with all this work on it, and I was freaked out. Some ppl dropped out of the honors classes. But I stuck with it and did great, and even tested out of things in college from being in them.
I don't know how to solve abusive families, but if all you're worried about is those kids holding back smart kids that want to learn, it's called honors classes and they exist already.
Haha, well I *am* a small-fingered person... actually tiny fingered. I wear like a size 4 ring. I like that keyboard better than a regular one actually. The reason I wanted a tiny laptop was because of weight... I'm a small girl (this is why girls like them, some of us have a had time carrying heavy things), and there is no way that I would be able to carry a 10lb laptop around campus, especially with notebooks and books added to that. And, I didn't get the laptop to be able to do some crazy mega graphic crap on it. I still have a desktop for that, I can do that sort of thing at home. The whole point of it is to be able to surf the web anywhere, use IMs, word processing, etc.
Having a laptop that can do everything a desktop can do but making it huge defeats the entire purpose of a laptop for me.
I just got a new laptop, a Fujitsu P5020, the little teeny tiny one (I LOVE it). I can run it for at least 4 hours easily with the battery it came with, not the high capacity one, while using wireless internet. That is plenty for me. So, they have battery life out there much better than you are talking about.
There are a lot of people within the MTV demographic that agree that today's new music is mostly crap. You'll be amazed at how many high school and college-age students post on slashdot. I am a college-age student, and I can say with sincerity that there is very little musical talent going on in most of the popular music today. They are made up and molded into factory-pressed dolls that sing the same crap and try to see how what moral boundaries they can push. There is SOME good new music, yeah, but I listen to older stuff a lot.
Though this is not an excuse to say that piracy is ok because the artists are bad. That is wrong. BUT, that is part of the reason why me, and many others I know, haven't bought a new cd in some 4 or 5 years. The REAL REASON people pirate music is the high prices on cds. If I could get a new cd for less than 10 dollars, I would be a lot more willing to pay for it. Some people just can't afford to waste their money on exhorbitantly-priced cds when they have 100s of dollars of books to pay for, gas money, fees, food, etc to pay for and very little time to make money in between being a full-time student. So if they want to market music to people my age, they need to lower prices and I gurantee the demand would go up. And lower prices on ONLINE music too, cuz I consider cds utterly useless. I won't ever buy a cd again in my life because I consider it waste... I listen to mp3s only. Off the computer, off the mp3 player... you can even listen to them in the car. So why would I want a cd that I would just rip and then set on a shelf forever? Lower the price of 99 cents per song, and I would consider buying it. And I mean a lot lower. Like 50 cents. Online music SHOULD come out cheaper than the cd anyway, since you arent getting the nice little pamphlet with lyrics and pictures.
You don't have to be sick to pray about things. I pray about everything in my life... even the little things. That's what God wants you to do. He doesn't want to just be the person you turn to the bail you out of the worst situations you've gotten yourself into. He is there to listen to your problems at work/school, problems with your boy/girlfriend, anything. And He does help. And even if you don't get exactly what you pray for, it isn't because God isn't there or God wasn't listening or God doesn't care. It's because it wasn't what was right for you. The best thing to pray for is that whatever happens, God's will happens, and believe me, you will be happy.
Most will probably read this and think I'm just another brainwashed Christian who is praying to the air and just happens to get lucky and have my prayers answered sometimes. Well, think that if you wish. But I know for a fact that in my life experience, prayer has helped tremendously. Prayer is one of the best things you can do to help someone. And I just wanted to say that, even though I will likely be modded down just because I have Christian views.
The Ti89 is an EXCELLENT investment. My trusty old 89 is an engineer's best friend.. it does EVERYTHING. I've used it so much that I think I'm wearing out the buttons.. haha not really. But, it uses regular AAA batteries so I don't what you're talking about there. You can put regular or rechargeables in there, I use regular in mine though and carry a spare pack at all times, even though the 89 warns you about a week in advance before it dies. I just have nightmares of it dying in the middle of an exam.
But the 89 will solve algebra equations, even SYSTEMS of alegebra equations, symbolically. It also does calculus, which is extremely convenient. It does matrix algebra.. it factors, expands. It's abililties are endless. I've owned a Casio, Ti86, and my final investment, the Ti89, was by far the BEST calculator I've ever used. It's a worthy investment and I would think it's useful for non-students as well as students.
For some people, the cost is quite an obstacle. I'm lucky enough that my dad has a good job with good hospitalization and my parents never had to worry about it, especially because I have had many health problems.
However, my grandpa saw the doctor for the first time in his life last year. At the age of 65... only because he is on Medicare now. Before, they couldn't really afford it (my mom's parents are super-low-income living off Social Security alone now) and he was lucky enough to never have anything majorly wrong.
But men are VERY prone to the "I'm fine, really" thing. You silly macho people.;)
I think the key to learning proper English is READING. In my experience, the kids that excel in grammar in school are the ones that read books and such for fun. They know grammar because they constantly see it and unconsciously pick up the patterns. I never was really taught grammar. I picked it up from the massive amounts of books I read as a child. I compacted out of pretty much every English test in elementary school and never once got points off for bad grammar on any essay I ever wrote. I can see how taking a foreign language would be helpful in some ways, but when I took it in high school, we didn't really learn that much at all. After 2 years of Spanish in high school, I probably could write about two paragraphs of ridiculously simple Spanish. Most of what I did learn was self-taught. I always thought that kids should learn grammar in one language before tackling others, otherwise they might get different rules confused and stuff. If you don't actually use a language, then it's harder to learn. I never was fond of memorizing rules anyway; I just do what sounds and looks right from seeing the patterns so often.
But overall, reading proper grammar being used over and over is the key to learning good grammar. My younger brother, a freshman in high school, can barely write two sentences of correct grammar. Why? He NEVER reads. Things online are full of bad grammar. If a kid is reading posts on some forum, chances are other people are not using proper grammar, whether they know how to or not. I don't think the web is the best place in the world to learn grammar, but it is better than nothing.
Wal-mart actually pays their employees more than the local supermarkets, at least in my hometown. I can attest, because I worked at one of the local grocery stores one summer and I knew people working at Wal-mart that got paid significantly more than me, had better hours and benefits, and actually got legal breaks. I hated that job and shall never work in customer service crap again. It's all so fake.
*ahem* Jacking up the corner of the car probably involves more strength than my feeble skinny arms that can barely carry my organic chemistry textbook across campus have....
What if you *do* have a spare *tIre* and don't know how to change it. Yes, ok, I'm a girl. I'm sorry, but I can't change a flat tire. And having a flat tire is only one thing that can go wrong with a car. What if your battery dies and you need a jump? What if your engine breaks? What if you run out of gas? (THAT would be stupid though) I mean, I drive a 13-year-old car and all those things, well besides running out of gas, are perfectly plausible things to occur.
Another plus to cell phones is being able to call long distance. And my, all sorts of things. I don't use mine very much at all, but when I need it, it's very nice to have.
So, instead you are saying you carry your whole cd collection with you jogging? That would take more than a backsack. You missed the point.
The point is, mp3 player's can HOLD your entire cd collection in a little box big enough to fit in your pocket. I just recently got mine for an early Christmas present... 20 GB. The only place I still use CD's is in my car. And I wouldn't if my car still had a tape player, because then I would buy an adapter for my mp3 player. But otherwise, I either listen off the computer or mp3 player, because they can hold EVERYTHING. CDs are obsolete in my opinion. Even if I did buy a CD, I just rip it and never take it out the case again. It's a waste.
I will miss the old hand-drawn films. They have a certain nostalgia about them... the not-so-crispness lends a certain effect that is lost in computer-generated animation. CG is nice, but I don't think they should completely eradicate the old way.
They are actually quite easy to solve. I have a little book that gives a systematic way to solve them. At one time, I could do it without peeking at the book, but I haven't done it in awhile. I can solve one in less than 5 minutes though.
The minute my machine is ever turned off because someone near me has a virus is the minute I cancel my account and change providers
I would do that if it was an option. If you are living in a dorm, your ONLY option for internet access is the college RESnet. I pay for RESnet, and my internet was out for an average of over an hour per night the first week of class. Which is incredibly annoying because not only do I live on the computer for personal use (i.e. chatting, surfing, etc) but also to get homework assignments off webassign, print out syllabuses and other course material, etc. Thankfully the internet at my university has been staying up much more reliably this week. I don't know if such worms/viruses as this article speaks of caused it, but I was pretty aggravated last week.
However, I agree that they need to make sure networks are secure. The first month I was here in the dorms last year my computer was attacked by a virus that altered my master boot record so that it deleted my freaking hard drive the next time I rebooted. Needless to say, I took more networking precautions after this harrowing incident. I already had antivirus software and firewalls and latest security patches, but more shields were put up afterwards.
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I've used cash for all of the above except buying a bus ticket b/c I don't ride buses. Even fast food places have credit card swipers. Hell, Sonic has a credit card reader at the drive up menu. And yes at bars, you start up a tab on your card and it only gets swiped once, not for each drink. Not a big deal. I hardly ever use cash; I don't think there are many places at all were credit cards aren't an option anymore except maybe a vending machine. I even use a credit card to buy things at Goodwill! Us young'uns don't use cash for much anymore. I typically don't even carry more than 20 dollars. However, I am not disputing the point that the US should differentiate the bills to be discernible for the blind. That's fine. Just disputing your argument's basis.
No university I know of sends a copy of your grades to your parents. Actually, they do not mail grades at all at my university unless you specifically request it because they aren't gonna waste the paper unless you want it. Your grades are posted online anyway. The school doesn't know who is paying your bills. If you're 18, I don't think they can send your grades to anyone, even your parents, unless you give them permission, as far as I know.
Yeah floppies are still good for some things. I wouldn't order a new desktop without one at this point. I would never get a laptop with one though (mine doesn't) b/c a usb key works much better and a floppy drive on a laptop = weight. But having a floppy drive on a desktop doesn't hurt anything.
But, I think kids should be taught how to type at a young age (way before high school, like 4th grade or something). I can comfortably type at about 95 WPM (I just took a couple of those tests a previous poster linked to) and I've been typing for almost as long as I can remember it seems.. it comes as naturally as riding a bike or walking.
I'm a girl, and I noticed the same thing in his sig. I don't know how many digits I have memorized exactly, but enough to notice that...lol.
Naw, the worst thing about fireworks shows are the mosquitos. At least in the summer in Louisiana... We used to stay in our car or wear pants in the 80 degree muggy night to combat the darned mosquitos to see the 4th of July show.
Then, it got better for awhile, but the network got bad again. Hours with computing services on the phone later... they insist that I have a virus or hardware problem. I knew there was nothing wrong with my computer, it worked fine when I had it home over break, and I do my updates and run a firewall and such. I only had a week left of class at this point before the end of the semester, so I just dealt with having internet maybe 50% of the time (which is traumatic for me). But sure enough, when I got home with my computer, NOTHING was wrong with it, the internet was fine. What I think was wrong with it was ppl with worms... Zone Alarm would pick up dozens of port scans every minute... and I tried to tell computing services the IPs of those doing it, but they would have none of that.
In summary, college networks need to do something about this. I wonder why they don't just run cable or dsl to the rooms instead of dealing with this network jazz. I guess it would be more expensive, but I would rather pay more for reliable internet service myself. They are supposedly going to make more stringent requirements next year, but if they make me do some autoupdater crap I won't like that idea. I'm not sure what a good solution would be, but something needs to be done.
I guess in Mississippi the bathroom is the woods. Hehe. They may have added on more restrooms to their rest areas since I've been through there of course, but if it's still like that, they definitely need to fix that before they think about Wi-Fi.
It was called honors classes. You had to have a certain grade in your classes in junior high, certain standardized test scores, and/or teacher recommendations to get in them. So, basically the cream of the crop of the students go into these honors classes. I LOVED them because you were surrounded by students that actually cared about school and there was no misbehavior, at least rarely, in honors classes. Now regular classes, like electivies, god I hated those. They were full of morons and it was annoying. But honors classes really do work. They were excellent college prep too. I remember my freshman English teacher handing us a syllabus with all this work on it, and I was freaked out. Some ppl dropped out of the honors classes. But I stuck with it and did great, and even tested out of things in college from being in them.
I don't know how to solve abusive families, but if all you're worried about is those kids holding back smart kids that want to learn, it's called honors classes and they exist already.
Having a laptop that can do everything a desktop can do but making it huge defeats the entire purpose of a laptop for me.
I just got a new laptop, a Fujitsu P5020, the little teeny tiny one (I LOVE it). I can run it for at least 4 hours easily with the battery it came with, not the high capacity one, while using wireless internet. That is plenty for me. So, they have battery life out there much better than you are talking about.
Though this is not an excuse to say that piracy is ok because the artists are bad. That is wrong. BUT, that is part of the reason why me, and many others I know, haven't bought a new cd in some 4 or 5 years. The REAL REASON people pirate music is the high prices on cds. If I could get a new cd for less than 10 dollars, I would be a lot more willing to pay for it. Some people just can't afford to waste their money on exhorbitantly-priced cds when they have 100s of dollars of books to pay for, gas money, fees, food, etc to pay for and very little time to make money in between being a full-time student. So if they want to market music to people my age, they need to lower prices and I gurantee the demand would go up. And lower prices on ONLINE music too, cuz I consider cds utterly useless. I won't ever buy a cd again in my life because I consider it waste... I listen to mp3s only. Off the computer, off the mp3 player... you can even listen to them in the car. So why would I want a cd that I would just rip and then set on a shelf forever? Lower the price of 99 cents per song, and I would consider buying it. And I mean a lot lower. Like 50 cents. Online music SHOULD come out cheaper than the cd anyway, since you arent getting the nice little pamphlet with lyrics and pictures.
You don't have to be sick to pray about things. I pray about everything in my life... even the little things. That's what God wants you to do. He doesn't want to just be the person you turn to the bail you out of the worst situations you've gotten yourself into. He is there to listen to your problems at work/school, problems with your boy/girlfriend, anything. And He does help. And even if you don't get exactly what you pray for, it isn't because God isn't there or God wasn't listening or God doesn't care. It's because it wasn't what was right for you. The best thing to pray for is that whatever happens, God's will happens, and believe me, you will be happy. Most will probably read this and think I'm just another brainwashed Christian who is praying to the air and just happens to get lucky and have my prayers answered sometimes. Well, think that if you wish. But I know for a fact that in my life experience, prayer has helped tremendously. Prayer is one of the best things you can do to help someone. And I just wanted to say that, even though I will likely be modded down just because I have Christian views.
But the 89 will solve algebra equations, even SYSTEMS of alegebra equations, symbolically. It also does calculus, which is extremely convenient. It does matrix algebra.. it factors, expands. It's abililties are endless. I've owned a Casio, Ti86, and my final investment, the Ti89, was by far the BEST calculator I've ever used. It's a worthy investment and I would think it's useful for non-students as well as students.
However, my grandpa saw the doctor for the first time in his life last year. At the age of 65... only because he is on Medicare now. Before, they couldn't really afford it (my mom's parents are super-low-income living off Social Security alone now) and he was lucky enough to never have anything majorly wrong.
But men are VERY prone to the "I'm fine, really" thing. You silly macho people. ;)
But overall, reading proper grammar being used over and over is the key to learning good grammar. My younger brother, a freshman in high school, can barely write two sentences of correct grammar. Why? He NEVER reads. Things online are full of bad grammar. If a kid is reading posts on some forum, chances are other people are not using proper grammar, whether they know how to or not. I don't think the web is the best place in the world to learn grammar, but it is better than nothing.
Wal-mart actually pays their employees more than the local supermarkets, at least in my hometown. I can attest, because I worked at one of the local grocery stores one summer and I knew people working at Wal-mart that got paid significantly more than me, had better hours and benefits, and actually got legal breaks. I hated that job and shall never work in customer service crap again. It's all so fake.
*ahem* Jacking up the corner of the car probably involves more strength than my feeble skinny arms that can barely carry my organic chemistry textbook across campus have....
Another plus to cell phones is being able to call long distance. And my, all sorts of things. I don't use mine very much at all, but when I need it, it's very nice to have.
That's why you have backups. Which I do.
The point is, mp3 player's can HOLD your entire cd collection in a little box big enough to fit in your pocket. I just recently got mine for an early Christmas present... 20 GB. The only place I still use CD's is in my car. And I wouldn't if my car still had a tape player, because then I would buy an adapter for my mp3 player. But otherwise, I either listen off the computer or mp3 player, because they can hold EVERYTHING. CDs are obsolete in my opinion. Even if I did buy a CD, I just rip it and never take it out the case again. It's a waste.
I will miss the old hand-drawn films. They have a certain nostalgia about them... the not-so-crispness lends a certain effect that is lost in computer-generated animation. CG is nice, but I don't think they should completely eradicate the old way.
Anyhow, this is VERY funny.
Or you could try living in a dorm where it is never quiet. I sleep with earplugs every night.
I would do that if it was an option. If you are living in a dorm, your ONLY option for internet access is the college RESnet. I pay for RESnet, and my internet was out for an average of over an hour per night the first week of class. Which is incredibly annoying because not only do I live on the computer for personal use (i.e. chatting, surfing, etc) but also to get homework assignments off webassign, print out syllabuses and other course material, etc. Thankfully the internet at my university has been staying up much more reliably this week. I don't know if such worms/viruses as this article speaks of caused it, but I was pretty aggravated last week.
However, I agree that they need to make sure networks are secure. The first month I was here in the dorms last year my computer was attacked by a virus that altered my master boot record so that it deleted my freaking hard drive the next time I rebooted. Needless to say, I took more networking precautions after this harrowing incident. I already had antivirus software and firewalls and latest security patches, but more shields were put up afterwards.