I wish there was a good command line client so I could automate the process of grabbing mp3s from randirhodesarchives.com and uploading them to my player for my long morning commute. There are a few projects underway to do this, but nothing mature last time I checked.
Then parents can decide what is suitable for themselves to view as well as their children, and nobody needs to step on anyone else's right to broadcast what they want or watch what they want.
I agree with you completely in principle. There is one issue here that I haven't seen anyone mention: The level of violence and other objectionable material in network commercials for shows coming on later. If I am a parent who wants to watch a sporting event with my young son, I end up exposing him to whatever is on the show later, which I would never let him see.
As far as I'm concerned you can have your HBO and your late night shows of every variety. But, there has to be someone who will tell the networks that they can't show dead bodies and murders taking place and people arguing and fist fighting during the baseball game. [Please no Red Sox jokes:-)]
But wasn't one of the problems with the recent RPC exploits that XP needed to have RPC running for some reason? Sure you can turn stuff off, but will the system continue to function normally otherwise?
For a moment there I thought they were going to outlaw use of the term "extreme" in the naming of computer products. Next to that travesty, cannibalism is a quaint eccentricity.
For a moment there I thought there were going to outlaw use of the term "extreme" in the naming of computer products. Next that that travesty, cannabalism is a quaint eccentricity.
2) Would you throw a baby into a lit furnace to save yourself? What about 100 babies? 1000? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes. I can't imagine a situation in which I would have to throw a thousand babies into a fire but I would very easily leave a burning building with a thousand babies in it to save my life. I would also light the fire if it meant saving my life.
Holy shit.
OK, let me try that again. This actually raises a good point. Clearly choices about life and death like this one come down to individual motives and values. What's "right for you" might not be what's "right for me," and all that jazz. However, what is the basis for me to call bullshit on a moral/ethical decision that you make, even recognizing the contextual nature of all judgments?
It has something to do with communal norms, but we can all think of examples where the whole community loses its moral compass.
Someone needs to remind these jokers they are paid by public funding and student tuition, so they are accountable to both of those groups
I'm a professor, and I was right with you, up until you used the term "jokers." I have absolutely no problem with people discussing the relative merits of my class and my teaching style. I know that I'm not perfect, and there are things that I need to work on (too much lecture, slow grading, dorky humor, etc.) But these anonymous student reviews too often turn into ad hominem attacks rather than intellectual discussion.
If I read that "otprof's lectures are disorganized and hard for me to follow," I can think about whether that is the case or not. Maybe it's just the nature of the material, but maybe I need to work on my outlining a bit. But if I read "otprof is an ass. Whatever you do, don't take this joker," how do I respond to that? How is that helpful to anyone? In my mind it just shows the lack of intellectual engagement that probably earned that student a low mark in my class, which is probably the root of his/her frustration. If you have a legitimate gripe, by all means get it out there however you can (including communicating with the prof), but presume that slamming the guy in a personal and general way is really public discourse.
I also don't think a professor should be able to completely hide reviews on the site. The other changes, by and large, seem good to me. They allow for better peer review and accountability.
Reading text is much easier that way, that's why it's often divided into columns.
Actually, usually it's divided into columns so that they can give us a huge column of ads on the left, a huge column of ads on the right, and several big ads alterating with a thin strip of text in the middle. I also like to keep my browser narrow for reading text, but on most "news" sites this makes the text about 5 characters wide.
Sorry for the rant... just a pet peeve of mine. I always look for the "printer-friendly" version just to get the text that I want to read. I figure it's a matter of time before the printer ink lobby makes that particular type of link illegal (circumventing the advertising schema, or something like that).
Though, to be honest, I think I'd prefer a sources package including anything specific for the Mandrake 7.2 configuration, but with the freedom of being able to recompile the bugger myself.
You can't do that with Mandrake? In Slackware, Pat includes the vanilla (Linus's) kernel source with a small handful of patches and a build script that you can use or tailor to your whims. The Slackware kernel is mostly vanilla, and you don't have to do anything for it to "suit" your disto. There are a few patches (XFS, for example) that can be useful, of course.
It's super easy, at least if one has basic reading comprehension.
Oh, and to add insult to injury, the functionality they used on the website was a subset of that which the university's own course management website will do. So the subscription isn't really even necessary.
That story rings true to me. Academics get caught up in the same crap that businesses do: we fall victim to marketing buzzwords, looking for "solutions" for our "knowledge management." Thus, you end up paying for stupid online resources instead of using the perfectly good systems already implemented.
I'm on the Academic Computing committee, and I've seen it many times.
But you usually can't find out what texts are being used for a given course until a week or so before classes at the earliest, sometimes not even until after classes start, leaving insufficient time to order and have it shipped to your door by the time you need it for the first set of homework assignments (my experience is that profs expect you to have the text by the end of the first week).
I have to order the texts for my classes 2-3 months or so before the term actually starts. The campus bookstore is actually quite annoying about getting our orders in on time.
Students pre-register for classes about a month before the term starts. If anyone is interested in which texts we are using, all they have to do is email me or stop by the office.
I actually do everything I can to use the same texts again. For one, if I am using the same edition the bookstore will give last term's students more money for their books, knowing they can sell them right back to another group. Also, I am very aware of the cost of books for my students. I would only require a book if we are actually going to use it.
I bougth the iriver ihp-120 and have been very happy about it.
I'm happy that you like the iRiver. I hope that they gain market share. However...
I tried the rio karma and took it back since they now require you to use Realplayer to manage file copying and managament.
False. They have their own RioManager software, plus a java-based version that has basic transfer and playlist functionality. PLUS, you can use the ethernet web-based interface. What would give you this impression?
It wouldn't even show up as an external drive on my perfectly mainstream WinXP box.
The "mainstream" nature of your box has nothing to do with it. The file system of the Karma is not designed to show up as an external drive. This is a difference from most other players, but it supposedly makes the FS more stable and fast. What really suprises me is that one would buy a product expecting functionality that it does not claim to have.
The Rio Karma has a DJ function that lets you pick the most played songs in a given time frame, songs from a particular year, songs that you used to listen to a bunch but haven't lately (golden oldies), or even your least played songs.
What I like about keeping all my music together on a big drive is that I'm constantly "re-discovering" tracks that I had mostly ignored when I was using my 160MB flash-based player.
The iPod has a similar "smart playlist" feature, if I'm not mistaken. From my experience, the one on the Karma is really cool.
That's a hilarious comment... hopefully you will get some funny mods.
Seriously, I tell my students that the problem isn't using the internet for information. The problem is that you have to cite the source of your information. Is that so hard? Geesh...
I teach at University as well, and I disagree. Until you have used a service like turnitin.com, you don't really get a sense of how pervasive cheating can be.
You may be right about cheating being more pervasive than I think. I do know that I talk about it with my students, and our administration spends a lot of time and energy trying to educatate students about what is acceptable and what isn't.
This is a tool. The computer doesn't flunk anyone. It just presents the professor with a very well-organized summary of what it found. It's the professor who has to decide what to do with that information.
This is an important point that some folks on here are missing. I guess that I would rather rely on my relationship with my students to help me with this problem. There is a trial program here (similar to the free trial in the article). If some surprising numbers start coming from there I may have to rethink my attitude about it.
On the other hand, my point about weak and strong students still stands. The essay portions of my class are only about 20-25% of the grade. I have a midterm and final, plus quizzes and class participation grades. Also, I have been using Harvard Law's Rotisserie system which requires them to write significant amounts of material almost every day. Even if someone were cheating on the formal essay, it wouldn't make up for the rest of the course requirements. The Rotisserie, especially, will expose their lack of ideas or communication skills. This term it counts for 20%, the same as the final essay.
The dirty work of educating the unwashed undergraduate masses falls to lower ranked profs or GAs. Those really expierenced professors who do want to "just teach" are marginalized out to smaller schools or satellite campuses.
Most of your points about the disregard for teaching at large universities have some validity. I would urge that you reconsider your use of the term "marginalized." Many people go into this business because they love teaching, love helping others discover truth, and love working with undergraduates. I teach at a small liberal arts college with a stellar reputation (in the region especially, but also in the whole country). I guarantee that if you are looking for a great, traditional education like you described you can find it at one of these "marginalized" places.
Don't get me wrong; money is still a huge issue here. Tuition is climbing and there is more and more emphasis on fund raising and pleasing rich alumni, etc. But I can honestly say that teaching is still our first priority. We have small classes taught by professors that you can meet with for any reason (class related or personal), and we send students to the best graduate schools in the country.
I am not in exile because I don't want to be a research super-star. I'm here because I want to be in a place that values my priorities and skills in teaching.
PS: I am also an active member of the professional academy. One difference: I try to get my students involved in my work and even take them to conferences to check things out.
Sorry, if the teachers could come up with halfway decent ideas, and marked, this problem wouldn't exist.
When you assignment is "analyse this book" of course you're going to get the same crap again and again.
I don't really like the phrase "lazy teachers", but this is an insightful comment. I have started to ask very different essay questions each term (I teach the same Intro class 3 times a year, in addition to my upper level stuff). The result is that students can't just use their roommate's paper from last year. Plus, I keep an electronic copy of all essays, in txt format for easy grep'ing.
The essays are harder to forge, they are more interesting for the student to write, and perhaps most importantly, they are more interesting for me to read. If I'm reading two sections worth of papers (about 50-60), it really sucks if they are all variations on the same idea.
My last paper assignment in Intro to Bible was "write a short biography of Jesus as pictured in one of the gospels, as if he were alive right now in America." Not only did I get lots of different interpretations of Jesus, I could still test for their comprehension of the particular gospel portrayals (they are quite different).
This is an excellent question. The courses I teach in Religion don't generally have this problem, but some of the theology and philosophy courses I took in grad school did.
For example, how do you write a short paper on one of Habermas's ideas? His language is terribly specific and unique to his philosophical construction. It can be done, however. The point of the assignment is usually to help you develop that skill. Can you take a technical essay and describe it's argument in your own language to someone else? The trick is to be able to rephrase the argument (it will usually take more words) and supplement your discussion with specific quotes from the article to provide a control over your interpretation.
Sometimes it's not easy, but if you can do this it shows that you really understand the article. That said, if you use the original author's language you should put it in quotes, regardless of how many quotes you need. This applies to phrases (2 or more words) or single words that are uniquely used by that author.
As I tell my students, however, don't quote something unless the original wording is particularl striking or can't be reworded no matter what (unlikely).
I'm a professor in the humanitites and I've caught a handful of people cheating on their essays over the years. Our school used a trial version of a system like this, but I don't really trust it.
My classes are never more than 25 or 30, and I read all the essays myself. A good student could probably get something by me (however, a good student can generally write something much better than what you'd find on the internet). The weak students (or lazy ones who wait until the last moment) are the ones who can't get away with copying something from the internet.
When a below-average student suddenly turns something in that has a thesis statement, well developed paragraphs, and good grammar, I'm immediately suspicious. Maybe they're just getting some help from someone (technically forbidden as well, unless cited). So I type a few key phrases into Google, probably the same source that they used to find the material to begin with. If I don't find anything but am still suspicious I have the student in and ask them directly. Hopefully my students know that I'm a reasonable enough person that they wouldn't have to resort to such measures and then openly lie about it.
That said, mostly the problem is with younger students who don't know the difference between quoting, paraphrasing, and plagiarism. When I find something that is an ignorant mistake we can usually turn it into a "teaching moment."
I've been using laptops for so long (in graduate school) that now that I have a job with an office and a computer I can't type on this "real" keyboard worth a shit. My advice is if you ever want to be able to use an extra keyboard don't ever get used to a laptop keyboard. It's kinda weird actually. My laptop keyboards have all been full size, but I can't find a keyboard that duplicates the tactile feel I've grown used to.
Actually it's more complicated than this... I'm trying to get a new laptop with an acceptable keyboard and most of them are either too squishy or too clicky. Maybe I'm just too sensitive, or obsessing about the keyboard just so I don't have to actually do any work on it!
Slashdot Mirror
In a word, yes.
Uh, what about some form of
inside a script with wget?Somehow "drinkypoo's law" doesn't have the same ring...
I agree with you completely in principle. There is one issue here that I haven't seen anyone mention: The level of violence and other objectionable material in network commercials for shows coming on later. If I am a parent who wants to watch a sporting event with my young son, I end up exposing him to whatever is on the show later, which I would never let him see.
As far as I'm concerned you can have your HBO and your late night shows of every variety. But, there has to be someone who will tell the networks that they can't show dead bodies and murders taking place and people arguing and fist fighting during the baseball game. [Please no Red Sox jokes :-)]
Damn, I hate that guy.
But wasn't one of the problems with the recent RPC exploits that XP needed to have RPC running for some reason? Sure you can turn stuff off, but will the system continue to function normally otherwise?
For a moment there I thought they were going to outlaw use of the term "extreme" in the naming of computer products. Next to that travesty, cannibalism is a quaint eccentricity.
For a moment there I thought there were going to outlaw use of the term "extreme" in the naming of computer products. Next that that travesty, cannabalism is a quaint eccentricity.
Yes. I can't imagine a situation in which I would have to throw a thousand babies into a fire but I would very easily leave a burning building with a thousand babies in it to save my life. I would also light the fire if it meant saving my life.
Holy shit.
OK, let me try that again. This actually raises a good point. Clearly choices about life and death like this one come down to individual motives and values. What's "right for you" might not be what's "right for me," and all that jazz. However, what is the basis for me to call bullshit on a moral/ethical decision that you make, even recognizing the contextual nature of all judgments?
It has something to do with communal norms, but we can all think of examples where the whole community loses its moral compass.
I'm a professor, and I was right with you, up until you used the term "jokers." I have absolutely no problem with people discussing the relative merits of my class and my teaching style. I know that I'm not perfect, and there are things that I need to work on (too much lecture, slow grading, dorky humor, etc.) But these anonymous student reviews too often turn into ad hominem attacks rather than intellectual discussion.
If I read that "otprof's lectures are disorganized and hard for me to follow," I can think about whether that is the case or not. Maybe it's just the nature of the material, but maybe I need to work on my outlining a bit. But if I read "otprof is an ass. Whatever you do, don't take this joker," how do I respond to that? How is that helpful to anyone? In my mind it just shows the lack of intellectual engagement that probably earned that student a low mark in my class, which is probably the root of his/her frustration. If you have a legitimate gripe, by all means get it out there however you can (including communicating with the prof), but presume that slamming the guy in a personal and general way is really public discourse.
I also don't think a professor should be able to completely hide reviews on the site. The other changes, by and large, seem good to me. They allow for better peer review and accountability.
Actually, usually it's divided into columns so that they can give us a huge column of ads on the left, a huge column of ads on the right, and several big ads alterating with a thin strip of text in the middle. I also like to keep my browser narrow for reading text, but on most "news" sites this makes the text about 5 characters wide.
Sorry for the rant... just a pet peeve of mine. I always look for the "printer-friendly" version just to get the text that I want to read. I figure it's a matter of time before the printer ink lobby makes that particular type of link illegal (circumventing the advertising schema, or something like that).
For those strange tranny evenings...
You can't do that with Mandrake? In Slackware, Pat includes the vanilla (Linus's) kernel source with a small handful of patches and a build script that you can use or tailor to your whims. The Slackware kernel is mostly vanilla, and you don't have to do anything for it to "suit" your disto. There are a few patches (XFS, for example) that can be useful, of course.
It's super easy, at least if one has basic reading comprehension.
That story rings true to me. Academics get caught up in the same crap that businesses do: we fall victim to marketing buzzwords, looking for "solutions" for our "knowledge management." Thus, you end up paying for stupid online resources instead of using the perfectly good systems already implemented.
I'm on the Academic Computing committee, and I've seen it many times.
I have to order the texts for my classes 2-3 months or so before the term actually starts. The campus bookstore is actually quite annoying about getting our orders in on time.
Students pre-register for classes about a month before the term starts. If anyone is interested in which texts we are using, all they have to do is email me or stop by the office.
I actually do everything I can to use the same texts again. For one, if I am using the same edition the bookstore will give last term's students more money for their books, knowing they can sell them right back to another group. Also, I am very aware of the cost of books for my students. I would only require a book if we are actually going to use it.
That's nothing! I was in K-Mart the other day and all of their streetlights were flashing a BSOD!
I'm happy that you like the iRiver. I hope that they gain market share. However...
I tried the rio karma and took it back since they now require you to use Realplayer to manage file copying and managament.
False. They have their own RioManager software, plus a java-based version that has basic transfer and playlist functionality. PLUS, you can use the ethernet web-based interface. What would give you this impression?
It wouldn't even show up as an external drive on my perfectly mainstream WinXP box.
The "mainstream" nature of your box has nothing to do with it. The file system of the Karma is not designed to show up as an external drive. This is a difference from most other players, but it supposedly makes the FS more stable and fast. What really suprises me is that one would buy a product expecting functionality that it does not claim to have.
What I like about keeping all my music together on a big drive is that I'm constantly "re-discovering" tracks that I had mostly ignored when I was using my 160MB flash-based player.
The iPod has a similar "smart playlist" feature, if I'm not mistaken. From my experience, the one on the Karma is really cool.
Seriously, I tell my students that the problem isn't using the internet for information. The problem is that you have to cite the source of your information. Is that so hard? Geesh...
You may be right about cheating being more pervasive than I think. I do know that I talk about it with my students, and our administration spends a lot of time and energy trying to educatate students about what is acceptable and what isn't.
This is a tool. The computer doesn't flunk anyone. It just presents the professor with a very well-organized summary of what it found. It's the professor who has to decide what to do with that information.
This is an important point that some folks on here are missing. I guess that I would rather rely on my relationship with my students to help me with this problem. There is a trial program here (similar to the free trial in the article). If some surprising numbers start coming from there I may have to rethink my attitude about it.
On the other hand, my point about weak and strong students still stands. The essay portions of my class are only about 20-25% of the grade. I have a midterm and final, plus quizzes and class participation grades. Also, I have been using Harvard Law's Rotisserie system which requires them to write significant amounts of material almost every day. Even if someone were cheating on the formal essay, it wouldn't make up for the rest of the course requirements. The Rotisserie, especially, will expose their lack of ideas or communication skills. This term it counts for 20%, the same as the final essay.
Thanks for the reply.
Most of your points about the disregard for teaching at large universities have some validity. I would urge that you reconsider your use of the term "marginalized." Many people go into this business because they love teaching, love helping others discover truth, and love working with undergraduates. I teach at a small liberal arts college with a stellar reputation (in the region especially, but also in the whole country). I guarantee that if you are looking for a great, traditional education like you described you can find it at one of these "marginalized" places.
Don't get me wrong; money is still a huge issue here. Tuition is climbing and there is more and more emphasis on fund raising and pleasing rich alumni, etc. But I can honestly say that teaching is still our first priority. We have small classes taught by professors that you can meet with for any reason (class related or personal), and we send students to the best graduate schools in the country.
I am not in exile because I don't want to be a research super-star. I'm here because I want to be in a place that values my priorities and skills in teaching.
PS: I am also an active member of the professional academy. One difference: I try to get my students involved in my work and even take them to conferences to check things out.
When you assignment is "analyse this book" of course you're going to get the same crap again and again.
I don't really like the phrase "lazy teachers", but this is an insightful comment. I have started to ask very different essay questions each term (I teach the same Intro class 3 times a year, in addition to my upper level stuff). The result is that students can't just use their roommate's paper from last year. Plus, I keep an electronic copy of all essays, in txt format for easy grep'ing.
The essays are harder to forge, they are more interesting for the student to write, and perhaps most importantly, they are more interesting for me to read. If I'm reading two sections worth of papers (about 50-60), it really sucks if they are all variations on the same idea.
My last paper assignment in Intro to Bible was "write a short biography of Jesus as pictured in one of the gospels, as if he were alive right now in America." Not only did I get lots of different interpretations of Jesus, I could still test for their comprehension of the particular gospel portrayals (they are quite different).
For example, how do you write a short paper on one of Habermas's ideas? His language is terribly specific and unique to his philosophical construction. It can be done, however. The point of the assignment is usually to help you develop that skill. Can you take a technical essay and describe it's argument in your own language to someone else? The trick is to be able to rephrase the argument (it will usually take more words) and supplement your discussion with specific quotes from the article to provide a control over your interpretation.
Sometimes it's not easy, but if you can do this it shows that you really understand the article. That said, if you use the original author's language you should put it in quotes, regardless of how many quotes you need. This applies to phrases (2 or more words) or single words that are uniquely used by that author.
As I tell my students, however, don't quote something unless the original wording is particularl striking or can't be reworded no matter what (unlikely).
My classes are never more than 25 or 30, and I read all the essays myself. A good student could probably get something by me (however, a good student can generally write something much better than what you'd find on the internet). The weak students (or lazy ones who wait until the last moment) are the ones who can't get away with copying something from the internet.
When a below-average student suddenly turns something in that has a thesis statement, well developed paragraphs, and good grammar, I'm immediately suspicious. Maybe they're just getting some help from someone (technically forbidden as well, unless cited). So I type a few key phrases into Google, probably the same source that they used to find the material to begin with. If I don't find anything but am still suspicious I have the student in and ask them directly. Hopefully my students know that I'm a reasonable enough person that they wouldn't have to resort to such measures and then openly lie about it.
That said, mostly the problem is with younger students who don't know the difference between quoting, paraphrasing, and plagiarism. When I find something that is an ignorant mistake we can usually turn it into a "teaching moment."
I've been using laptops for so long (in graduate school) that now that I have a job with an office and a computer I can't type on this "real" keyboard worth a shit. My advice is if you ever want to be able to use an extra keyboard don't ever get used to a laptop keyboard. It's kinda weird actually. My laptop keyboards have all been full size, but I can't find a keyboard that duplicates the tactile feel I've grown used to.
Actually it's more complicated than this... I'm trying to get a new laptop with an acceptable keyboard and most of them are either too squishy or too clicky. Maybe I'm just too sensitive, or obsessing about the keyboard just so I don't have to actually do any work on it!