There's always a stink about "my goodness, we need more computers in the classrooms!" but IMHO, there are a lot of other things that should be addressed first, regardless of whether the computer can be a good learning tool (which is a whole other topic...)
My wife taught in a public high school in Austin for 7 years. What was she missing?
She had kids sitting on the radiators for the first several weeks of class while they waited for desks to be brought in.
She had kids sharing textbooks because they were short.
She didn't have a phone in her room, or even a working intercom or panic button. If an emergency came up, she had to send a kid tearing down the hall to the principal's office.
Needless to say, having a computer sitting on a desk in the back of the room was not a high priority...
Perhaps you could release it, and the code, but with a restrictive license that doesn't allow redistribution... for the time being.
You could put something in the license, though, that says "in 2002, this license will be null and void, replaced by the GNU General Public License (see Appendix A)"
That way, people have a warm fuzzy that the product has a life even if _you_ choose to move on to other things, they get the source right up front if they need it, and it still looks like you "get it.":)
I've actually taken a day-long "design for ergonomics" class geared for improving ergonomics in the workplace (in this case, on an assembly line) and one of the things that they stressed is that while, say, a hammer with indentations for the user's fingers may look like an ergonomic design, this is probably true for only a small percentage of the population.
This is because the people with hands/fingers that are larger or smaller than the provided indentations will find that they've got half their fingers in indentations, and the other half on ridges (for example). A handle that's smoothly curved, or perhaps one that conforms to each individual hand, is a much better design.
So, I have to wonder, looking at this mouse, how many people will find it comfortable, with those pre-ordained little pockets for your fingers.
I wish the DOJ had suggested a 3rd company - Microsoft Hardware. Damn, I do love the ol' MS mouse. And now that they've got the LED/Laser version, mmmm.... nothing better!:-)
Yeah, I understand. But people were asking early on about what the differences were, because the official page was not up yet. This guy answered that burning question...
I dunno. I figure the mod- and meta-mod- system works pretty well. When I moderate, I mark "Hey Moderator" posts as off-topic. Which they are, IMHO.:-)
What would it take to make a little applet to toggle junkbuster on & off? Sometimes my setting isn't quite right to allow me to do something that requires cookies, and I turn it off for a moment... but forget to turn it back on.
Any good way to make this easy / automatic?
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Ya, Slashdot scooped ya on that one. :)
on
1.21 Quickiewatts
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· Score: 1
You gotta be quick if you want to survive in this dog-eat-dog online publishing world, emmett.:)
So you give up some easy stuff. When they say "that's not all" you give up a little more. Then you say "no more... really" and they can't prove otherwise.
This is all well and good, but what I want to know is - can I afford one? Has anyone seen mention of prices for a computing device using a Transmeta processor?
I always wondered if people would have been more receptive to ReiserFS if he hadn't named his work after himself... how many other kernel components require you to chant the developer's name like a mantra whenever you're talking about them?
Hmmm... well, I guess "Linux" is from "Linus." But if I recall correctly, it wasn't Linus who named it Linux.... he wanted "Freeix" or something like that.:)
Mr. Reiser has been spouting an awful lot of paranoia lately on the list as well, claiming that his filesystem is being held up by some sort of Red Hat conspiracy... it's really sort of embarrasing to watch, IMHO.
I think he meant that the machine, not the software, was frozen. As in the component configuration - they only make one box with Linux on it, and you don't get to choose your options.
Any check printed by a consumer on a home PC is going to be spit out like this
Why do you say this? Is the tolerance of the positioning tighter than 1/300th of an inch? (I don't have the spec handy...)
Also, the absolute size of the characters and the spacing between them is more tightly controlled than the absolute position of the MICR line on the check, so errors introduced in the paper feed are less important, as long as the device can print with consistent accuracy...
You can bet that I'll have disclaimers in the package.:)
This debate rages on Usenet every so often... the short answer is that the bank will accept & process almost anything, but they might charge you extra if their automated system can't handle it.
I've used VersaCheck without problems, but only for 3-4 checks per month.
I've heard that some banks use OCR anyway, instead of the magnetic reader.
Slashdot Mirror
There's always a stink about "my goodness, we need more computers in the classrooms!" but IMHO, there are a lot of other things that should be addressed first, regardless of whether the computer can be a good learning tool (which is a whole other topic...)
My wife taught in a public high school in Austin for 7 years. What was she missing?
She had kids sitting on the radiators for the first several weeks of class while they waited for desks to be brought in.
She had kids sharing textbooks because they were short.
She didn't have a phone in her room, or even a working intercom or panic button. If an emergency came up, she had to send a kid tearing down the hall to the principal's office.
Needless to say, having a computer sitting on a desk in the back of the room was not a high priority...
---
Perhaps you could release it, and the code, but with a restrictive license that doesn't allow redistribution... for the time being.
:)
You could put something in the license, though, that says "in 2002, this license will be null and void, replaced by the GNU General Public License (see Appendix A)"
That way, people have a warm fuzzy that the product has a life even if _you_ choose to move on to other things, they get the source right up front if they need it, and it still looks like you "get it."
What do you think?
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"Wide enough to accomodate most hands?"
:)
What about the narrow hands of, say, a 10th percentile Asian female? Or is she supposed to put her whole hand in one of those finger-pockets?
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I've actually taken a day-long "design for ergonomics" class geared for improving ergonomics in the workplace (in this case, on an assembly line) and one of the things that they stressed is that while, say, a hammer with indentations for the user's fingers may look like an ergonomic design, this is probably true for only a small percentage of the population.
:-)
This is because the people with hands/fingers that are larger or smaller than the provided indentations will find that they've got half their fingers in indentations, and the other half on ridges (for example). A handle that's smoothly curved, or perhaps one that conforms to each individual hand, is a much better design.
So, I have to wonder, looking at this mouse, how many people will find it comfortable, with those pre-ordained little pockets for your fingers.
I wish the DOJ had suggested a 3rd company - Microsoft Hardware. Damn, I do love the ol' MS mouse. And now that they've got the LED/Laser version, mmmm.... nothing better!
---
Yeah, I understand. But people were asking early on about what the differences were, because the official page was not up yet. This guy answered that burning question...
:-)
I dunno. I figure the mod- and meta-mod- system works pretty well. When I moderate, I mark "Hey Moderator" posts as off-topic. Which they are, IMHO.
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A link to the gzip'd diff, which you then have to search through for the changelog? Nah. I appreciate the post.
And what's with all the "instructions to moderators" type posts - is this some sort of pseudo-meta-moderation?
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What would it take to make a little applet to toggle junkbuster on & off? Sometimes my setting isn't quite right to allow me to do something that requires cookies, and I turn it off for a moment... but forget to turn it back on.
Any good way to make this easy / automatic?
---
You gotta be quick if you want to survive in this dog-eat-dog online publishing world, emmett. :)
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oh wait. That was dia. Never mind.
:)
Sodipodi is cool too though.
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sodipodi is here
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So you give up some easy stuff. When they say "that's not all" you give up a little more. Then you say "no more... really" and they can't prove otherwise.
Also, just compile it with
s/StegFS/VirusScan/
and most likely no one will ever know...
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The trick is to not let them know you've got anything there, encrypted or not.
Check out StegFS
StegFS is a Steganographic File System for Linux. Not only does it encrypt data, it also hides it such that it cannot be proved to be there.
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This is all well and good, but what I want to know is - can I afford one? Has anyone seen mention of prices for a computing device using a Transmeta processor?
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There are lists of the other specialized searches here.
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Perhaps this is just slightly OT, but one of the things I really like about Google is their Linux-specific search engine!
:)
They always seem to turn up Linux stuff anyway - sometimes I wonder if rpmfind.net alone accounts for 75% of their 1 billion pages.
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I always wondered if people would have been more receptive to ReiserFS if he hadn't named his work after himself... how many other kernel components require you to chant the developer's name like a mantra whenever you're talking about them?
:)
Hmmm... well, I guess "Linux" is from "Linus." But if I recall correctly, it wasn't Linus who named it Linux.... he wanted "Freeix" or something like that.
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Mr. Reiser has been spouting an awful lot of paranoia lately on the list as well, claiming that his filesystem is being held up by some sort of Red Hat conspiracy... it's really sort of embarrasing to watch, IMHO.
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Why are all of those scathing feedbacks rated as "neutral" - even those which say "negative" in the review? Wow.
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I would've thought that the very existence of a working replica of the Mach 5 would be "News for Nerds"...
You mean sort of like this article here?
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I think he meant that the machine, not the software, was frozen. As in the component configuration - they only make one box with Linux on it, and you don't get to choose your options.
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I have a ways to go to break even on my last batch of RHAT. In the black overall on them though.
What's up with CORL? Bankruptcy?
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At the end of today's trading:
RHAT +18.97%
CORL +13.56%
LNUX +12.35%
ok, here's a bunch of non-caps text to get around the anti-caps lameness filter. Which I didn't even know existed...
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The date is, coincidentally enough, just prior to when Mickey Mouse cartoons started.
Heh.... I was just going to say "What do you think the chances are of any Disney work ever passing into the public domain?"
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Any check printed by a consumer on a home PC is going to be spit out like this
Why do you say this? Is the tolerance of the positioning tighter than 1/300th of an inch? (I don't have the spec handy...)
Also, the absolute size of the characters and the spacing between them is more tightly controlled than the absolute position of the MICR line on the check, so errors introduced in the paper feed are less important, as long as the device can print with consistent accuracy...
---
You can bet that I'll have disclaimers in the package. :)
This debate rages on Usenet every so often... the short answer is that the bank will accept & process almost anything, but they might charge you extra if their automated system can't handle it.
I've used VersaCheck without problems, but only for 3-4 checks per month.
I've heard that some banks use OCR anyway, instead of the magnetic reader.
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