What he wrote is that Germany has awesome engineering base which allows them to be among the world's top 3 exporters *despite* very high labour costs. Germany is not no.1 or no.3 in exporting cheap plastics stuff. They export tons of custom made machinery which is produced in the shops where everyone has to be more then literate. I have yet to see an illiterate metal worker operating computer controlled shop equipment.
I read the section on effects from the quoted wiki article. Nowhere I saw anything about catastrophic consequences. And no I do not consider sinking of Tivalu or even entire Micronesia and relocation of 11 million people in Bangladesh as catastrophic for the entire human civilization.
We must live on different planets then. On my planet the science of AGW has been completely discredited and the scientists shamed. In more honourable countries people commit ritual suicide when caught with their pants down like that. But I guess not in the liberal sphere of the Western world.
I am a little bit confused over why the used the current Russian National anthem as a theme for the video. They must have gotten confused over the fact that it uses the same music as the old Soviet anthem, but it does not have a word about commnism in it. Should do better research next time.
Thank you, great reply. It's sad (and funny) when geek trashs Ipod Touch and now the Ipad comparing it to for instance Nokia N900 which runs a full Linux ARM distro. You know, you are not gonna impress me by having a full distro on a N900 size device, I've seen full distros running on devices only slighly larger than a quarter and even that is not impressive anymore. Any second year student should be able to have Linux running on anything within a month given hardware specs. What is impressive is not cramming features into a device with laggy and unintuitive interface. but the opposite - carefully choosing a nice subset of features and polishing it to near perfection. And this is what Apple has done with the IPod Touch interface, it is more responsive than any Windows or Linux GUI I have tried, on a quad core with 4 gigs of RAM. Only BEOS could compare to it.
This is actually a particular case of a more general problem with certain programmer's mindset. They believe that giving the users more features and more options is enabling the user, but actually it is quite the opposite - when there are tweny ways to do the same thing it is a sign of mental lazyness of the developer who could not pick the best way to do something and just shifted this responsibility to the user.
I am a Russian citizen and do not believe western democracy is the best form of government. I also think you believe it not because of some deep comparison and analysis you performed but because it has been beaten into you head since you were a kid. Democracy is just a way to elect a strong capable leader. We already have a strong leader and a system that passes authority to another strong leader. Why do we need crazy election eccentrics? On the other hand I have been following Western election and USA elections in particualr and I do not for a second beleive the system worked to provide you with a good leader. If the system worked than why was Bush Jr, the president, not once but TWICE?? Was he really the most capable man for the job in America for whole eight years? If the system misfires so badly why keep it.
In Russia we call these types VOBBBL (Restorer of Balance, Rich, Flying, Armored). In other cultures a superhero comes from the downtrodden masses, he/she suffers the same kind of abuse and injustice so the people associate themselves with him. But take for instance Batman, he used the system to make untold fortune, well beyond the hopes of an average person and then.. decided to impose his own kind of justice. Why do you like these kind of types?
Bad analogies. She's clearly not in the right physical shape to be fixing anything mechanical. And I know it's speculation, but I also doubt she was asked if she wanted to learn programming. But judging by the condescending attitude of the coached (check it put how surprised they are when apparently she figured out something by herself) they did not ask her. They *assumed* that she was not capable of learning how to operate a normal computer and gave her something that is advertised as a simplest web capable device, and for them of course web = internet = computer.
I can explain it with ease. At least where I live I can buy dozens of Iphone models that say "Apple" on them that have features not found on any phones listed on the Apple website. Maybe my town is an official Apple prototype testing headquarters? In reality they are Chinese clones that run a heavily themed version of WinMo. So Gizmodo knowing that what they had was not an official Apple phone disassembled it to make sure it was actually made by Apple.
Depending on where you parked the car can be considered abandoned immediately. Does the bar have a sign saying "Free iphone storage"? It was clearly abandoned.
I still do not understand the trick through which the law defines handling a device abandoned in a public place the same as stealing. Hell, during my several unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking I threw several perfectly good cartons of cigarettes out of the window, should the person who found and took them be tried for stealing?
Thank you! What a beautiful response. We must not let these monsters (like Jobs, etc) brainwash us into believing that computers are "just tools" and use this to justify their overpriced locked down boxes.
Compurt is just a tool, this is a lie that the likes of Jobs are trying (and in your case have succeeded) to beat into our heads in order to justify their locked down devices. Wee I come from another school of thought. Computers are windows into a beautiful workd that can be shaped and molded through programming. I will never forgot a banner that hang on the ground floor of my school - it said "Programming is a second literacy". It's a quote by the A.P. Ershov, a great mathematician of our time and the founder of computer education in then Soviet Union. The old woman (btw I hate the condescending treatment she receives from her coachers, like she's mentally retarded) could be using a real computer and learning BASIC and later maybe even Scheme to really express her life experiences in the form of abstract ideas that flow freely inside the computers. By forcing her to use this pathetic locked down device their are denying her the last opportunity to immerse herself into this brave new world. How sad...
As someone who actually lives in Northern Asia (Siberia) I get a good laugh when someone suggests we will benifit from GW. How is turning millions of sq.km of permarfrost into one gigantic mud patch, destroying cities, factories, power stations, roads, pipelines built on permafrost (like Yakutsk population 200K) is gonna benefit us? At least for Russia melting of the permafrost would be a disaster of gigantic proportions.
I hope you realize that people are more important than things is just your point of view. There is enough room in the world for different kind of personalities. If Perelman believes that abstract ideas are more important than people AND things I say more power to him. I personally find it offensive when someone tells me to just get a girlfriend or just get outside.
Agreed, how pathetic, he has resorted to reporting his competitors to the authorities in an effort to whore his failed Citizendium project that no one visits.
It's called a can-do attitude. I believe it is something that Americans used to have and now you complain when Indian and Russian developers show it. When given tough requirements Americans start looking for a way why it can not be done while we take on the "impossible" and accomplish it, often ahead of schedule!
I too think the two questions are poorly constructed and can not be used as an indicator of scientific literacy in a first world country. I'm sure most of the people who answered "no" were aware of the theories and thus can not be considered scientifically illiterate in the true sense. There is a big difference between not knowing about a major scientific theory and rejecting it. I myself do not hold any religious beliefs to interfere with my rational thought and would answer "yes" to both questions but I would protest if someone who considered the theories and rejected them (even if I still believe they are wrong) is called illiterate. The questions simply fail to differentiate between the two groups of people.
It may encourage sexual intercourse between minors which in some US states is statutory rape even if it is "consensual". Secondly, I do not think school age kids should be having sex, but the solutions so far provided are not even a band-aid, they just plain do not work. The root of the problem is that kids are bored and have too much free time. When I was at school (not in the US) we did not even *think* of sex until at least 19 y/o, why? 8 hours at school, 8 hours of homework and extra-curricular activities completely consumed whatever energy that could be channeled into libido.
Considering recent events I think it is very fullish for the parents to leave their teenage boys at a church alone with a stranger. Maybe there is a more sinister reason they do not want to attend?
I live in Russia now and I lived in the USSR for long enough of my childhood to remember how things were. I hope this satisfies your curiosity. I know that the idea of building anything resembling Marx's communism died with Lenin and Trotsky but that was not the point of my post. I was commenting on the silliness of the 'good' sharing and 'bad, commercial' sharing. You know from my experience workers in the USSR free from commercial exploitation did not go on to create a variety of amazing things, most just took the situation as a chance to seat around idly most of the work day. Anything consumer, more complicated than a loaf of bread was sold broken right at the store, was not uncommon at all to come to the store and find every TV set in stock to be non-functional, then buy it anyways and then spend weeks or months procuring electronic components to fix it yourself. Sound a lot like Free Software, doesn't it? IMHO Free Software has run out of steam, beyond several high profile projects (that land actual paying jobs or fame) Free Software just does not provide enough motivation for people both to do interesting tasks (If I am good at something that is interesting to me, I'd rather do it at a place that pays me money for it) and for mundane tasks (who wants to do testing and good support with actual ETAs for free?).
Good thing the Brits have already discovered and switched to a democratic form of government. If what you say s true what's preventing them from voting for the Pirate party in the coming elections and doing away with the copyright law? Seriously the fundamental problem is that we have not found a way to integrate non scarce resources into the economy based on scarcity. Software, movies and music can be instantly and infinitely copied at almost no cost but the creators need a way to benefit from their work to consume scarce resources, thus we must introduce artificial scarcity.
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What he wrote is that Germany has awesome engineering base which allows them to be among the world's top 3 exporters *despite* very high labour costs. Germany is not no.1 or no.3 in exporting cheap plastics stuff. They export tons of custom made machinery which is produced in the shops where everyone has to be more then literate. I have yet to see an illiterate metal worker operating computer controlled shop equipment.
China is already no.1 auto manafacturer in the world, how soon do you think competition will force to relocate the plants to China?
I read the section on effects from the quoted wiki article. Nowhere I saw anything about catastrophic consequences. And no I do not consider sinking of Tivalu or even entire Micronesia and relocation of 11 million people in Bangladesh as catastrophic for the entire human civilization.
We must live on different planets then. On my planet the science of AGW has been completely discredited and the scientists shamed. In more honourable countries people commit ritual suicide when caught with their pants down like that. But I guess not in the liberal sphere of the Western world.
I am a little bit confused over why the used the current Russian National anthem as a theme for the video. They must have gotten confused over the fact that it uses the same music as the old Soviet anthem, but it does not have a word about commnism in it. Should do better research next time.
I could sell dirty socks of my feet for $500 given Apple's marketing budget.
This is actually a particular case of a more general problem with certain programmer's mindset. They believe that giving the users more features and more options is enabling the user, but actually it is quite the opposite - when there are tweny ways to do the same thing it is a sign of mental lazyness of the developer who could not pick the best way to do something and just shifted this responsibility to the user.
I am a Russian citizen and do not believe western democracy is the best form of government. I also think you believe it not because of some deep comparison and analysis you performed but because it has been beaten into you head since you were a kid. Democracy is just a way to elect a strong capable leader. We already have a strong leader and a system that passes authority to another strong leader. Why do we need crazy election eccentrics? On the other hand I have been following Western election and USA elections in particualr and I do not for a second beleive the system worked to provide you with a good leader. If the system worked than why was Bush Jr, the president, not once but TWICE?? Was he really the most capable man for the job in America for whole eight years? If the system misfires so badly why keep it.
In Russia we call these types VOBBBL (Restorer of Balance, Rich, Flying, Armored). In other cultures a superhero comes from the downtrodden masses, he/she suffers the same kind of abuse and injustice so the people associate themselves with him. But take for instance Batman, he used the system to make untold fortune, well beyond the hopes of an average person and then.. decided to impose his own kind of justice. Why do you like these kind of types?
Bad analogies. She's clearly not in the right physical shape to be fixing anything mechanical. And I know it's speculation, but I also doubt she was asked if she wanted to learn programming. But judging by the condescending attitude of the coached (check it put how surprised they are when apparently she figured out something by herself) they did not ask her. They *assumed* that she was not capable of learning how to operate a normal computer and gave her something that is advertised as a simplest web capable device, and for them of course web = internet = computer.
I can explain it with ease. At least where I live I can buy dozens of Iphone models that say "Apple" on them that have features not found on any phones listed on the Apple website. Maybe my town is an official Apple prototype testing headquarters? In reality they are Chinese clones that run a heavily themed version of WinMo. So Gizmodo knowing that what they had was not an official Apple phone disassembled it to make sure it was actually made by Apple.
Depending on where you parked the car can be considered abandoned immediately. Does the bar have a sign saying "Free iphone storage"? It was clearly abandoned.
I still do not understand the trick through which the law defines handling a device abandoned in a public place the same as stealing. Hell, during my several unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking I threw several perfectly good cartons of cigarettes out of the window, should the person who found and took them be tried for stealing?
Thank you! What a beautiful response. We must not let these monsters (like Jobs, etc) brainwash us into believing that computers are "just tools" and use this to justify their overpriced locked down boxes.
Compurt is just a tool, this is a lie that the likes of Jobs are trying (and in your case have succeeded) to beat into our heads in order to justify their locked down devices. Wee I come from another school of thought. Computers are windows into a beautiful workd that can be shaped and molded through programming. I will never forgot a banner that hang on the ground floor of my school - it said "Programming is a second literacy". It's a quote by the A.P. Ershov, a great mathematician of our time and the founder of computer education in then Soviet Union. The old woman (btw I hate the condescending treatment she receives from her coachers, like she's mentally retarded) could be using a real computer and learning BASIC and later maybe even Scheme to really express her life experiences in the form of abstract ideas that flow freely inside the computers. By forcing her to use this pathetic locked down device their are denying her the last opportunity to immerse herself into this brave new world. How sad...
As someone who actually lives in Northern Asia (Siberia) I get a good laugh when someone suggests we will benifit from GW. How is turning millions of sq.km of permarfrost into one gigantic mud patch, destroying cities, factories, power stations, roads, pipelines built on permafrost (like Yakutsk population 200K) is gonna benefit us? At least for Russia melting of the permafrost would be a disaster of gigantic proportions.
I hope you realize that people are more important than things is just your point of view. There is enough room in the world for different kind of personalities. If Perelman believes that abstract ideas are more important than people AND things I say more power to him. I personally find it offensive when someone tells me to just get a girlfriend or just get outside.
Agreed, how pathetic, he has resorted to reporting his competitors to the authorities in an effort to whore his failed Citizendium project that no one visits.
It's called a can-do attitude. I believe it is something that Americans used to have and now you complain when Indian and Russian developers show it. When given tough requirements Americans start looking for a way why it can not be done while we take on the "impossible" and accomplish it, often ahead of schedule!
I too think the two questions are poorly constructed and can not be used as an indicator of scientific literacy in a first world country. I'm sure most of the people who answered "no" were aware of the theories and thus can not be considered scientifically illiterate in the true sense. There is a big difference between not knowing about a major scientific theory and rejecting it. I myself do not hold any religious beliefs to interfere with my rational thought and would answer "yes" to both questions but I would protest if someone who considered the theories and rejected them (even if I still believe they are wrong) is called illiterate. The questions simply fail to differentiate between the two groups of people.
It may encourage sexual intercourse between minors which in some US states is statutory rape even if it is "consensual". Secondly, I do not think school age kids should be having sex, but the solutions so far provided are not even a band-aid, they just plain do not work. The root of the problem is that kids are bored and have too much free time. When I was at school (not in the US) we did not even *think* of sex until at least 19 y/o, why? 8 hours at school, 8 hours of homework and extra-curricular activities completely consumed whatever energy that could be channeled into libido.
Considering recent events I think it is very fullish for the parents to leave their teenage boys at a church alone with a stranger. Maybe there is a more sinister reason they do not want to attend?
Just great, whatever happened to humbly taking your punishment? I doubt a teacher would strike you for nothing.
I live in Russia now and I lived in the USSR for long enough of my childhood to remember how things were. I hope this satisfies your curiosity. I know that the idea of building anything resembling Marx's communism died with Lenin and Trotsky but that was not the point of my post. I was commenting on the silliness of the 'good' sharing and 'bad, commercial' sharing. You know from my experience workers in the USSR free from commercial exploitation did not go on to create a variety of amazing things, most just took the situation as a chance to seat around idly most of the work day. Anything consumer, more complicated than a loaf of bread was sold broken right at the store, was not uncommon at all to come to the store and find every TV set in stock to be non-functional, then buy it anyways and then spend weeks or months procuring electronic components to fix it yourself. Sound a lot like Free Software, doesn't it? IMHO Free Software has run out of steam, beyond several high profile projects (that land actual paying jobs or fame) Free Software just does not provide enough motivation for people both to do interesting tasks (If I am good at something that is interesting to me, I'd rather do it at a place that pays me money for it) and for mundane tasks (who wants to do testing and good support with actual ETAs for free?).
Good thing the Brits have already discovered and switched to a democratic form of government. If what you say s true what's preventing them from voting for the Pirate party in the coming elections and doing away with the copyright law? Seriously the fundamental problem is that we have not found a way to integrate non scarce resources into the economy based on scarcity. Software, movies and music can be instantly and infinitely copied at almost no cost but the creators need a way to benefit from their work to consume scarce resources, thus we must introduce artificial scarcity.