me too. My wife's XP box took a dive and he needs her computer to do all her digital photography. So, I bought her a 1.42 mac mini, and I just checked it out. Sure as shit, it's a 1.5 with 64MB vram but the box does say 1.42 and 32MB vram.
I always thought facts were pretty indisputable, except when we choose to ignore them. There were long standing al Qaeda/Saddam connections. The 1993 WTC bombers? al Qaeda who ended up in Baghdad. Zawahiri, aQ #2? Originalyl in Egypt, head of Muslim Brotherhood, funding by...Saddam. Went to Afghanistan in '99. Zarkawi? Went from Afghanistan to? Baghdad. For? medical treatment for wounds. There are many others like the Sudan chem factory link. Why this is even disputed is beyond me.
what is this, the church and Galileo?
support for afghanistan was mandatory. the political risk was way to high.
where was the oposition when we unilaterally attacked Serbia? no NATO, no UN. If a democrat had gone into Iraq (and make no mistake, both Clinton and Gore were once hawks on Iraq), the opposition would be alot less.
Saddam was hardly neutered. In fact, the sanctions were set to expire, he was making billions of the oil for food scandal, and he was restarting his programs.
No, the real debate should be about what went right and wrong, where to go next, how to fight the next war better. we're in a long conflict. history will judge us poorly if we fail. this isn't the 15th century. failure this time will be apoclyptic.
let's consider our euro friends. their military is far undersized for their economies, and their abilities far short of their responsibities. they opposed us not on principle but on practicality. even in afghanistan, NATO is woefully inadequate. the US paid a steep price for generations of military support for europe without a slow gradual relinquishing of responsibility. Now, when we need them, they are neither able or willing. it is our fault, over the course of 50 years, not just the reckless cowboy's. gore would have been faced with the same problem, europe recalcitrant, only more diplomatic about it. it's a potemkin relationship. we all act as though it's a grand alliance when in fact they are our adversaries more than allies.
but look at the european fractures, they're more telling. they can't get the EU passed, france wants to control eastern european workers, access to turkey, and maintain it's elaborate welfare state on the backs of it's would be suuplicants. yet, in england, australia, the US, and Japan, Blair, Howard, Bush, and Kozumi were reelectd while Chirac and Schroeder tasted defeat. Funny, their leaders often see the world different from the people.
one last thing: the 500,000 troop invasion that shinseki, zinni, et al., said we needed simply didn't exist. their scenario was not possible. the reserve and guard issue were a purposeful structural change that began in the 70's and continued through the 90's. if in 2001 bush had said we've got a long conflict ahead that will take us many places, we need to doubel the army, etc., it would have been open warfare in congress. then when Iraq came up, the political wars would have become unimaginable. think about that.
those who claimed that he planned for Iraq all along would, well...
for a longtime no liberal ran on fiscal restraint. now many are. that's good.
for a long time, conservtives wanted to eliminate the Dept. of Ed. I do too, and I'm a teacher.
every administration attacks civil liberties. or does janet reno not ring a bell?
iraq was not unrelated. stop reading moveon.org's propagandist ignorant ramblings.
conservatives are not too fond of him. sure there's some social issues that are divisive, but, on most, the country's evenly divided.
i am not happy with the republicans right now, and pissed at the democrats for not taking national security seriously. i'd vote for a democrat in a heartbeat if i felt confident they would prosecute the war aggressively. but who among them who is not beholden to the dean/moveon/pacifist crowd has a chance? maybe, hillary. she talks tough, but she'll have to defend herself in the primaries.
as for the kill em all option, if bush was such a warmongering monster, then he wouldn't have done in afghanistan and iraq what he's attempted.
does it really matter if it's unilateral? france (especially france), russia, and germany were all on the take (oil for food). the UN is a corrupt institution. should we really allow others to dictate our foreign policy.
as for the planning, yes, there were problems. however, track the military changes and cuts in teh 90's, and you'll find we were in a major downsizing when 9/11 hit. for comparison, in 1941, the military had been in a three year rapid and major expansion so after peral harbor, we just accelerated what was already happening. every military operation (normandy, tarawa, okinawa, ardennes, kasserine, and so manu others) is going to have problems. the real concern us how we respond. we've done a fair job. sure it cold be better.
as for the thinnest of pretexts, there were 23 points on the congressional authorization. 77 senators voted yes. the US policy was regime change in Iraq (1998, signed by Clinton). there was not one credible source that said WMD's weren't there. the thinness is only from those who refuse to look at the facts and history.
other commenters have complained that there are other countries that are not democratic. yes, but how many of htem had long-standing terrorist ties, a history of violence towards the US (and more importatnly, its neighbors), wmd programs, a history of using them, and was actively pursuing new ones. plus, we were at war with him, as inthe no-fly zones, the US forced inspections (100,000 troops), etc.
we're in a long war, Iraq is a part. the hatred of the president clouds otherwise good judgements.
you have described everyone in washington. what's your point? actually, isn't it odd that now differences of opinion mean someone's smallminded, stupid, and stubborn. in fact, let's examine this:
whatever your thoughts on the WoT, after 9/11, if he was all you say, would he really believe in promoting democracy and changing the medieval ways of the middle east or would he just say "kill em all, let God sort them out"?
great point. I think that confirms what most of feel about lawyers, that they're really just hired guns. back in 2000, did anyone not think that the lawyers in Bush v. Gore could have just as easily switched sides and argued the same? remember the Roberts ruckus that he worked pro bon for a gay rights case? It's like people expect lawyers to have scruples or something.
it is interesting that it is now conservatives (myself included) that are disappointed with the Miers nomination while liberals (Feinstein, Reid, etc.) are happy. I seriously want to know this, howexactly is Bush conservative? Big spender, lax immigration, "diversity", federalized health care, education, and now emergency management. if he wasn't Christian, the liberals would not have a problem with the guy.
why is that such a hard concept for people to grasp? They want federal money but not federal regulations. What planet do they live on? I am leary only because of the potential for abuse, like cloning, fetus farming, etc.
I'm sorry, but this is pure hyperbole "A good number of scientific teams formerly here in the US have had to leave the country to continue their work". Actually, it is bullshit. What there is simply is a ban on federal funding of stem cell research. Sure, they might have left, but not out of fear. In fact, many firms are funding research on stem cells. There is no ban. Period. To say otherwise is a lie. Perhaps firms aren't putting as much money into it because maybe they don't feel there's significant returns possible. On that, I do not know. Maybe they think there's better returns on umbilical cord reserach. I don't know either. But if there was a potential for profit, they'd follow it with money.
Many, myself incldued are leary of stem cell research, not because of religious hang ups,but because of the potential for abuse. The cautin is warranted. And as for federal funding, they feds have no place in funding medical research. I looked in the constitution, and can't find mention of it anywhere. So, I oppose it on a) federalist principles and b) some moral qualms. But mostly a.
IE exploits fsck with your entire system. you know, it's a built in component. FF problems are more limted and deal more with windows alone. i've had no problems with FF on os x nor linux. FF and IE exploits are apples and oranges.
it's called marginal cost. learn the lingo. and, by the way, the "marginal cost" goes to 0 for most software. unless it's shrink wrap stuff, i.e. the books, etc. but even if it's downloaded, the marginal cost is the fraction of drive space and bandwidth. it matters not if it's free. where free software shines is in the "added value" of being to manipulate it. but, if I don't or can't use that feature, and make no mistake, it is a feature, than I don't necesasrily gain from software unless it is qualtatively equal or better. people don't necessarily choose free software because using it is not necessarily free.
DAZ has a made a commitment to keep the DAZ|Studio core application free to the public for as long as possible by relying on the revenues generated by the purchase of content available in the DAZ online store.
I didn't mean to imply I want the newest tech for its own sake. The point i was trying tomake was that the district was pennywise and pound foolish. By buying win98, they were forced to add on client/server software, lockdown software, remote admin software, etc. It adds up. As for the cheap PC's, we never (at least at my old school) used them. They were simply to boost our numbers so we could meet some ratio as per funding criteria. I've no idea the details really, other than that's what I learned from people who were in the know. More powerful machines at least could have been used. My point was that the money spent had nothing to do with classroom needs, etc.
as for computers and schools, I wholeheartedly agree. they add little value outside of actual computer classes. In fact, my master's thesis was exactly about that.
as for novell, I'm not knowledgable at all about it. I certainly don't claim to know the ins and outs of netware. However, our situation is rather unique in that we are really not one big network, but rather many branch offices if you will. i can't log on to the network from another school. we have consolidated servers when in reality we would probably be better off with site based servers. when the network goes down, everyone is hosed. it would seem to me a much more practical solution especially as we've added several knew schools the past few years. wouldn't it be wiser to add a new school by installing a server on site? now, they might be heading in that direction, and my anecdote is a few years dated. but, the point remains. while the industry was moving one way, we were going to opposite. and the person in charge was retiring. she was promoted to her spot based on seniority, etc., not any particular tech credentials. it was a district administrative post. period. and the decisions reflected that.
too true. and the other problem we have is that we're obviously not in the profit/loss mode. so, we go with what we have, and when we need to add on, it had better work with what we have. we can't scrap it and start over or be held accountable to a board of directors for screw ups. also, the people making decisions will usually not see the end results of them. they simply don't care. in fact, they force us in the trenches (he he) to use what they think we need. here's a classic example: sasi. the most wretched awful excuse for an attendance program. i'll have to take a screen shot and send it to you!! they decided the windows interface was not good enough, so they created their own. i guess that makes it easier to use? it's light purple!! plus, it's a client/server app (okay fine there) without a database (huh? i checked, it's all in flat text files), and that has a client program that runs off the server. no shit. it's designed to run only on windows (though it does work under wine. i'll leave that story for later...), and is designed to run on windows servers. and still, the client must be run off the server. now, it is dog sloooooowwwwwwwww. and it defaults to close if untouched after 10 minutes or so. so, if i have three straight periods (which i do), i can't leave it open. instead of taking role quickly, i have to wait which by that time, i'm teaching. now, here's an even better part. if teacher A is logged in on their computer, teacher B can still fire up sasi and access B's attendance while A is logged into to novell. and, teacher B can access teacher A's stuff as well. because sasi gives B B's info, yet novell says sasi can access A's info as well. yeah, it's a freakin wonder.
oh, and then there's sasi's gift to us, integrade pro. but of course, the people who use it have no say, and the people who decide don't case. we have to seriously redo how we run our public schools. i've long favored privitaization. seriously. and i'm a public high school teacher. i'm also a heretic!!
Oh, you have no idea!! My district for example, decided that the "best combination" was novell servers and windows98. Plus, at the very time the industry was going to blade servers, they were going to "fewer, more powerful" servers. of ocurse, the lady in charge of this retired the next year!! Now, every win98 box was loaded with anti-virus, admin software, lockdown, etc. they ran so sloooooooowwwwwwwwwww. and crashed 2 ways: regularly and consistently.
Later, we needed digital school money. We needed to have X computers per student, so what did they do? they went out and bought literally hundreds of P120's and P100's with 32MB ram, most of which ended up collecting dust in some back room in schools.
the decision was made, because of funding, to go with 98 instead of 2000, because the hardware requirements were too great for 2k, but when you ocnsider the extra costs of additional software, admining them, etc., it turns out that it's far more. instead of buying better hardware up front, they bought crap and piled crap upon crap.
now, as for overall school buying, here's the deal. you never come in under budget 'cause next year you'll get less. you always spend eevrything, bo over budget, get too little, then demand more next year. in fact, if principles have extra funds left over, they find dept chairs, etc., and see what they need. you can't have leftover money. eevry public school does this, even colleges. One of my profs in grad school told us he has list on excel that is rarin' to go as soon as the school year's up. he advised us to do the same.
I mention this because it is your tax dollars and your schools. I just teach in one of them. You need to stay on top of your school boards, especially those of you with tech savvy. Let them know (since they are elected) that they can't let the districts do stupid tech things.
Let me point out one obvious thing you don't seem to grab. A state has the authority to regulate who it grants contracts to, including the mariage contract. Regulation it is not hateful, especially when it reflects the will of the people. And yes, gay people can marry. There is no "sexuality test" prior to entering the marriage contract. Gay people can marry, they must marry people of the oposite gender. (Will is married to Grace by the way, unless you don't watch the show. I do. It is quite funny.) Now, it might be inconsistent you say for a gay man to marry a woman. It might be, but it does happen. So, there is no discrimination. This is wholly separate from miscogeny laws.
If you're concerned that person A can't leave property to person B, I agree. Property rights have been emasculated. How do youKelo? Marriage, however, is not a civil right. But I've spent too much time already.
I'd offer a response but it appears you've been trolling kos for cut-n-paste quotes. It's a fairy tale world. You apparently know little of political science, economics, or history. But you try hard.
if you're arguing that we're far more a socialist state, then i'd totally agree. even though we've a far smaller percentage of gdp from gov't spending, it's a creeping mentality, schools, health care, etc. think about the katrina aftermath. people are blaming the government for inaction. it's as if they can't function without it. i'm not talking about the indigent, that's different, but those that sit around and wait to be taken care of. it's problematic.
do the "corporations" have too much power? sure. but it spans ideology. the left wants open borders to dilute and destroy the American culture, and the right wants open borders to drive down labor costs. the left wants big government to protect "open space", the environment, etc., the right wants big government b usiness relationships all the same. is there a difference? hardly. i am a federalist, small government conservative. i would vote against gay marriage, but if my state voted for it, then it's the law. i accept that. neither the right nor the left would accept voting. both want the courts to impose the law. it's sad.
given the level of protest and poltical virulency, it's hardly that we're a fascist state. what the real problem is is that we've cocooned ourselves into our little enclaves. think about the red/blue map. you could drive from coast to coast and never leave a red county. the red gets redder, the blue gets bluer. the blue "enclaves" and th red sprawl rarely come into contact. they see each other less frequently, interact less with them, and end of with a caricatured view of each other.
the right (of which I would consider myself) are not neanderthals, gun toting, bible thumping, women opressing nut cases. the left are not commie appeasing, terrorist supproting, baby killing, environmental wackos. but we see each other as such. and we become more polarized. so you, who don't agree with the president (and by the way, neither do I on many things: immigration, spending, trade, education, etc. in fact damn near everything except the war on terror) only see him and his supporters in the distance. you know few who voted for him, or few who would openly say so.
perhaps my station, a public school teacher, gives me appreciation for "minority" status. I am the "other". I know how many view me, hell, they've as much called me it many times. perspective is, as always, a valuable commodity.
yes, state and corporate power are merged as you say, but it's hardly a move rightward. they want all the big government amenities and protections. when I said that the protests are the very contradictory evidence, it is ironic at best, tragic at worst, that bush is called hitler, mocked in films, belittled by public office holders, and slandered in the worst way almost reflexively by people so ibued with the zeal they chastise him for. as for tolerance of dissent, the left is equally guilty. but like I said, we hardly know each other anymore.
if you mean paid by the school, receiving a paycheck, then yes. if you mean paid specifically for the program, then no. I started it as a personal project, was asked by our tech coordinator if I knew of something, said I have been working on this...So, the program is wholly mine to give to the school, or sell, should I desire.
and your last sentence sums it up nicely too. they do so because they have the freedom to do so. it's why people can protest how the government is fascist, as if their actions weren't the very contradictory evidence. it's why europe can bash us, because they know we'll allow it. they would never want marxism, and they know all their squawking is just that, and their safe in the knowledge that we'll never get there. it's a self assuaging act.
wow, an econ lesson (i teach HS econ). What I think your arguing is your time versus the product. Your time is valuable and scarce, but the code is not necessarily. for example, though you need bandwidth, drive space, blank cd's, etc., you can replicate code, or the binaries, unlimtied times. you can't do that with a car. and there is a huge difference. we're paying for the allocation of scarce resources going to the car, or your time going to coding. but once complete, a new car still requires X amount of metal, a copy of your code requires 0 amount of your time.
the debate on "free" software is an interesting one economically. for example, open source can help a customer, but if they choose not to take advantage, it's "wasted". while getting under the hood of say Word would be priceless, you don't always need to.(maybe bad example!!) it's a bonus.
the difference between a design, a product, and an idea is tricky. even for an artist, a painting is still a single painting. a design can be copied, but what you're paying for was the time and effort. you're allowing others to use it. if I sold a design to Coproration X for $1 million dollars, then I feel my time and effort were worth that. if i license the design a $100 per, then I either can't get a million, or I figure 10,001 peopelo will license it.
i am a huge supporter of free software. i wrote an internal forum for my school (mysql/php) and licensed it gpl. my colleagues think i'm crazy. but what was I going to get paid, really? but, every school that uses it sees my name at the bottom.
i support any license, i as a consumer use what I feel is best. that's why i develop on my ibook.
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me too. My wife's XP box took a dive and he needs her computer to do all her digital photography. So, I bought her a 1.42 mac mini, and I just checked it out. Sure as shit, it's a 1.5 with 64MB vram but the box does say 1.42 and 32MB vram.
I always thought facts were pretty indisputable, except when we choose to ignore them. There were long standing al Qaeda/Saddam connections. The 1993 WTC bombers? al Qaeda who ended up in Baghdad. Zawahiri, aQ #2? Originalyl in Egypt, head of Muslim Brotherhood, funding by...Saddam. Went to Afghanistan in '99. Zarkawi? Went from Afghanistan to? Baghdad. For? medical treatment for wounds. There are many others like the Sudan chem factory link. Why this is even disputed is beyond me. what is this, the church and Galileo? support for afghanistan was mandatory. the political risk was way to high. where was the oposition when we unilaterally attacked Serbia? no NATO, no UN. If a democrat had gone into Iraq (and make no mistake, both Clinton and Gore were once hawks on Iraq), the opposition would be alot less. Saddam was hardly neutered. In fact, the sanctions were set to expire, he was making billions of the oil for food scandal, and he was restarting his programs. No, the real debate should be about what went right and wrong, where to go next, how to fight the next war better. we're in a long conflict. history will judge us poorly if we fail. this isn't the 15th century. failure this time will be apoclyptic. let's consider our euro friends. their military is far undersized for their economies, and their abilities far short of their responsibities. they opposed us not on principle but on practicality. even in afghanistan, NATO is woefully inadequate. the US paid a steep price for generations of military support for europe without a slow gradual relinquishing of responsibility. Now, when we need them, they are neither able or willing. it is our fault, over the course of 50 years, not just the reckless cowboy's. gore would have been faced with the same problem, europe recalcitrant, only more diplomatic about it. it's a potemkin relationship. we all act as though it's a grand alliance when in fact they are our adversaries more than allies. but look at the european fractures, they're more telling. they can't get the EU passed, france wants to control eastern european workers, access to turkey, and maintain it's elaborate welfare state on the backs of it's would be suuplicants. yet, in england, australia, the US, and Japan, Blair, Howard, Bush, and Kozumi were reelectd while Chirac and Schroeder tasted defeat. Funny, their leaders often see the world different from the people. one last thing: the 500,000 troop invasion that shinseki, zinni, et al., said we needed simply didn't exist. their scenario was not possible. the reserve and guard issue were a purposeful structural change that began in the 70's and continued through the 90's. if in 2001 bush had said we've got a long conflict ahead that will take us many places, we need to doubel the army, etc., it would have been open warfare in congress. then when Iraq came up, the political wars would have become unimaginable. think about that. those who claimed that he planned for Iraq all along would, well...
for a longtime no liberal ran on fiscal restraint. now many are. that's good.
for a long time, conservtives wanted to eliminate the Dept. of Ed. I do too, and I'm a teacher.
every administration attacks civil liberties. or does janet reno not ring a bell?
iraq was not unrelated. stop reading moveon.org's propagandist ignorant ramblings.
conservatives are not too fond of him. sure there's some social issues that are divisive, but, on most, the country's evenly divided.
i am not happy with the republicans right now, and pissed at the democrats for not taking national security seriously. i'd vote for a democrat in a heartbeat if i felt confident they would prosecute the war aggressively. but who among them who is not beholden to the dean/moveon/pacifist crowd has a chance? maybe, hillary. she talks tough, but she'll have to defend herself in the primaries.
where's truman and kennedy now?
as for the kill em all option, if bush was such a warmongering monster, then he wouldn't have done in afghanistan and iraq what he's attempted.
does it really matter if it's unilateral? france (especially france), russia, and germany were all on the take (oil for food). the UN is a corrupt institution. should we really allow others to dictate our foreign policy.
as for the planning, yes, there were problems. however, track the military changes and cuts in teh 90's, and you'll find we were in a major downsizing when 9/11 hit. for comparison, in 1941, the military had been in a three year rapid and major expansion so after peral harbor, we just accelerated what was already happening. every military operation (normandy, tarawa, okinawa, ardennes, kasserine, and so manu others) is going to have problems. the real concern us how we respond. we've done a fair job. sure it cold be better.
as for the thinnest of pretexts, there were 23 points on the congressional authorization. 77 senators voted yes. the US policy was regime change in Iraq (1998, signed by Clinton). there was not one credible source that said WMD's weren't there. the thinness is only from those who refuse to look at the facts and history.
other commenters have complained that there are other countries that are not democratic. yes, but how many of htem had long-standing terrorist ties, a history of violence towards the US (and more importatnly, its neighbors), wmd programs, a history of using them, and was actively pursuing new ones. plus, we were at war with him, as inthe no-fly zones, the US forced inspections (100,000 troops), etc.
we're in a long war, Iraq is a part. the hatred of the president clouds otherwise good judgements.
you have described everyone in washington. what's your point? actually, isn't it odd that now differences of opinion mean someone's smallminded, stupid, and stubborn. in fact, let's examine this:
whatever your thoughts on the WoT, after 9/11, if he was all you say, would he really believe in promoting democracy and changing the medieval ways of the middle east or would he just say "kill em all, let God sort them out"?
which requires greater thought?
great point. I think that confirms what most of feel about lawyers, that they're really just hired guns. back in 2000, did anyone not think that the lawyers in Bush v. Gore could have just as easily switched sides and argued the same? remember the Roberts ruckus that he worked pro bon for a gay rights case? It's like people expect lawyers to have scruples or something.
it is interesting that it is now conservatives (myself included) that are disappointed with the Miers nomination while liberals (Feinstein, Reid, etc.) are happy. I seriously want to know this, howexactly is Bush conservative? Big spender, lax immigration, "diversity", federalized health care, education, and now emergency management. if he wasn't Christian, the liberals would not have a problem with the guy.
why is that such a hard concept for people to grasp? They want federal money but not federal regulations. What planet do they live on? I am leary only because of the potential for abuse, like cloning, fetus farming, etc.
and if you look closely enough, you can see godzilla swimming by.
I'm sorry, but this is pure hyperbole "A good number of scientific teams formerly here in the US have had to leave the country to continue their work". Actually, it is bullshit. What there is simply is a ban on federal funding of stem cell research. Sure, they might have left, but not out of fear. In fact, many firms are funding research on stem cells. There is no ban. Period. To say otherwise is a lie. Perhaps firms aren't putting as much money into it because maybe they don't feel there's significant returns possible. On that, I do not know. Maybe they think there's better returns on umbilical cord reserach. I don't know either. But if there was a potential for profit, they'd follow it with money.
Many, myself incldued are leary of stem cell research, not because of religious hang ups,but because of the potential for abuse. The cautin is warranted. And as for federal funding, they feds have no place in funding medical research. I looked in the constitution, and can't find mention of it anywhere. So, I oppose it on a) federalist principles and b) some moral qualms. But mostly a.
there's no video link. i need to see that.
IE exploits fsck with your entire system. you know, it's a built in component. FF problems are more limted and deal more with windows alone. i've had no problems with FF on os x nor linux. FF and IE exploits are apples and oranges.
it's called marginal cost. learn the lingo. and, by the way, the "marginal cost" goes to 0 for most software. unless it's shrink wrap stuff, i.e. the books, etc. but even if it's downloaded, the marginal cost is the fraction of drive space and bandwidth. it matters not if it's free. where free software shines is in the "added value" of being to manipulate it. but, if I don't or can't use that feature, and make no mistake, it is a feature, than I don't necesasrily gain from software unless it is qualtatively equal or better. people don't necessarily choose free software because using it is not necessarily free.
DAZ has a made a commitment to keep the DAZ|Studio core application free to the public for as long as possible by relying on the revenues generated by the purchase of content available in the DAZ online store.
translation: 2 weeks
ubiquitous:
1. offer free product
2. ???
3. (natalie portman, grits, soviet russia, goatse)
4. profit
We've got a bigger dick than Dell. or Buy a Sun, get a free blow job.
I didn't mean to imply I want the newest tech for its own sake. The point i was trying tomake was that the district was pennywise and pound foolish. By buying win98, they were forced to add on client/server software, lockdown software, remote admin software, etc. It adds up. As for the cheap PC's, we never (at least at my old school) used them. They were simply to boost our numbers so we could meet some ratio as per funding criteria. I've no idea the details really, other than that's what I learned from people who were in the know. More powerful machines at least could have been used. My point was that the money spent had nothing to do with classroom needs, etc.
as for computers and schools, I wholeheartedly agree. they add little value outside of actual computer classes. In fact, my master's thesis was exactly about that.
as for novell, I'm not knowledgable at all about it. I certainly don't claim to know the ins and outs of netware. However, our situation is rather unique in that we are really not one big network, but rather many branch offices if you will. i can't log on to the network from another school. we have consolidated servers when in reality we would probably be better off with site based servers. when the network goes down, everyone is hosed. it would seem to me a much more practical solution especially as we've added several knew schools the past few years. wouldn't it be wiser to add a new school by installing a server on site? now, they might be heading in that direction, and my anecdote is a few years dated. but, the point remains. while the industry was moving one way, we were going to opposite. and the person in charge was retiring. she was promoted to her spot based on seniority, etc., not any particular tech credentials. it was a district administrative post. period. and the decisions reflected that.
too true. and the other problem we have is that we're obviously not in the profit/loss mode. so, we go with what we have, and when we need to add on, it had better work with what we have. we can't scrap it and start over or be held accountable to a board of directors for screw ups. also, the people making decisions will usually not see the end results of them. they simply don't care. in fact, they force us in the trenches (he he) to use what they think we need. here's a classic example: sasi. the most wretched awful excuse for an attendance program. i'll have to take a screen shot and send it to you!! they decided the windows interface was not good enough, so they created their own. i guess that makes it easier to use? it's light purple!! plus, it's a client/server app (okay fine there) without a database (huh? i checked, it's all in flat text files), and that has a client program that runs off the server. no shit. it's designed to run only on windows (though it does work under wine. i'll leave that story for later...), and is designed to run on windows servers. and still, the client must be run off the server. now, it is dog sloooooowwwwwwwww. and it defaults to close if untouched after 10 minutes or so. so, if i have three straight periods (which i do), i can't leave it open. instead of taking role quickly, i have to wait which by that time, i'm teaching. now, here's an even better part. if teacher A is logged in on their computer, teacher B can still fire up sasi and access B's attendance while A is logged into to novell. and, teacher B can access teacher A's stuff as well. because sasi gives B B's info, yet novell says sasi can access A's info as well. yeah, it's a freakin wonder.
oh, and then there's sasi's gift to us, integrade pro. but of course, the people who use it have no say, and the people who decide don't case. we have to seriously redo how we run our public schools. i've long favored privitaization. seriously. and i'm a public high school teacher. i'm also a heretic!!
damn, I have a few mod points left. That is damn funny. And true.
That's government purchasing for you.
Oh, you have no idea!! My district for example, decided that the "best combination" was novell servers and windows98. Plus, at the very time the industry was going to blade servers, they were going to "fewer, more powerful" servers. of ocurse, the lady in charge of this retired the next year!! Now, every win98 box was loaded with anti-virus, admin software, lockdown, etc. they ran so sloooooooowwwwwwwwwww. and crashed 2 ways: regularly and consistently.
Later, we needed digital school money. We needed to have X computers per student, so what did they do? they went out and bought literally hundreds of P120's and P100's with 32MB ram, most of which ended up collecting dust in some back room in schools.
the decision was made, because of funding, to go with 98 instead of 2000, because the hardware requirements were too great for 2k, but when you ocnsider the extra costs of additional software, admining them, etc., it turns out that it's far more. instead of buying better hardware up front, they bought crap and piled crap upon crap.
now, as for overall school buying, here's the deal. you never come in under budget 'cause next year you'll get less. you always spend eevrything, bo over budget, get too little, then demand more next year. in fact, if principles have extra funds left over, they find dept chairs, etc., and see what they need. you can't have leftover money. eevry public school does this, even colleges. One of my profs in grad school told us he has list on excel that is rarin' to go as soon as the school year's up. he advised us to do the same.
I mention this because it is your tax dollars and your schools. I just teach in one of them. You need to stay on top of your school boards, especially those of you with tech savvy. Let them know (since they are elected) that they can't let the districts do stupid tech things.
crap, damn html. It should read How do you feel about Kelo?
Let me point out one obvious thing you don't seem to grab. A state has the authority to regulate who it grants contracts to, including the mariage contract. Regulation it is not hateful, especially when it reflects the will of the people. And yes, gay people can marry. There is no "sexuality test" prior to entering the marriage contract. Gay people can marry, they must marry people of the oposite gender. (Will is married to Grace by the way, unless you don't watch the show. I do. It is quite funny.) Now, it might be inconsistent you say for a gay man to marry a woman. It might be, but it does happen. So, there is no discrimination. This is wholly separate from miscogeny laws.
If you're concerned that person A can't leave property to person B, I agree. Property rights have been emasculated. How do youKelo? Marriage, however, is not a civil right. But I've spent too much time already.
I'd offer a response but it appears you've been trolling kos for cut-n-paste quotes. It's a fairy tale world. You apparently know little of political science, economics, or history. But you try hard.
if you're arguing that we're far more a socialist state, then i'd totally agree. even though we've a far smaller percentage of gdp from gov't spending, it's a creeping mentality, schools, health care, etc. think about the katrina aftermath. people are blaming the government for inaction. it's as if they can't function without it. i'm not talking about the indigent, that's different, but those that sit around and wait to be taken care of. it's problematic.
do the "corporations" have too much power? sure. but it spans ideology. the left wants open borders to dilute and destroy the American culture, and the right wants open borders to drive down labor costs. the left wants big government to protect "open space", the environment, etc., the right wants big government b usiness relationships all the same. is there a difference? hardly. i am a federalist, small government conservative. i would vote against gay marriage, but if my state voted for it, then it's the law. i accept that. neither the right nor the left would accept voting. both want the courts to impose the law. it's sad.
given the level of protest and poltical virulency, it's hardly that we're a fascist state. what the real problem is is that we've cocooned ourselves into our little enclaves. think about the red/blue map. you could drive from coast to coast and never leave a red county. the red gets redder, the blue gets bluer. the blue "enclaves" and th red sprawl rarely come into contact. they see each other less frequently, interact less with them, and end of with a caricatured view of each other.
the right (of which I would consider myself) are not neanderthals, gun toting, bible thumping, women opressing nut cases. the left are not commie appeasing, terrorist supproting, baby killing, environmental wackos. but we see each other as such. and we become more polarized. so you, who don't agree with the president (and by the way, neither do I on many things: immigration, spending, trade, education, etc. in fact damn near everything except the war on terror) only see him and his supporters in the distance. you know few who voted for him, or few who would openly say so.
perhaps my station, a public school teacher, gives me appreciation for "minority" status. I am the "other". I know how many view me, hell, they've as much called me it many times. perspective is, as always, a valuable commodity.
yes, state and corporate power are merged as you say, but it's hardly a move rightward. they want all the big government amenities and protections. when I said that the protests are the very contradictory evidence, it is ironic at best, tragic at worst, that bush is called hitler, mocked in films, belittled by public office holders, and slandered in the worst way almost reflexively by people so ibued with the zeal they chastise him for. as for tolerance of dissent, the left is equally guilty. but like I said, we hardly know each other anymore.
if you mean paid by the school, receiving a paycheck, then yes. if you mean paid specifically for the program, then no. I started it as a personal project, was asked by our tech coordinator if I knew of something, said I have been working on this...So, the program is wholly mine to give to the school, or sell, should I desire.
and your last sentence sums it up nicely too. they do so because they have the freedom to do so. it's why people can protest how the government is fascist, as if their actions weren't the very contradictory evidence. it's why europe can bash us, because they know we'll allow it. they would never want marxism, and they know all their squawking is just that, and their safe in the knowledge that we'll never get there. it's a self assuaging act.
wow, an econ lesson (i teach HS econ). What I think your arguing is your time versus the product. Your time is valuable and scarce, but the code is not necessarily. for example, though you need bandwidth, drive space, blank cd's, etc., you can replicate code, or the binaries, unlimtied times. you can't do that with a car. and there is a huge difference. we're paying for the allocation of scarce resources going to the car, or your time going to coding. but once complete, a new car still requires X amount of metal, a copy of your code requires 0 amount of your time.
the debate on "free" software is an interesting one economically. for example, open source can help a customer, but if they choose not to take advantage, it's "wasted". while getting under the hood of say Word would be priceless, you don't always need to.(maybe bad example!!) it's a bonus.
the difference between a design, a product, and an idea is tricky. even for an artist, a painting is still a single painting. a design can be copied, but what you're paying for was the time and effort. you're allowing others to use it. if I sold a design to Coproration X for $1 million dollars, then I feel my time and effort were worth that. if i license the design a $100 per, then I either can't get a million, or I figure 10,001 peopelo will license it.
i am a huge supporter of free software. i wrote an internal forum for my school (mysql/php) and licensed it gpl. my colleagues think i'm crazy. but what was I going to get paid, really? but, every school that uses it sees my name at the bottom.
i support any license, i as a consumer use what I feel is best. that's why i develop on my ibook.