My standard example that I give in regards to these standards/tests is along the lines of:
To be healthy, you should:
A) Eat vegetables B) Exercise C) Take a vitamin D) Both A and B
If you answer "D", I assume you are healthy.
The question is not complete, nor completely accurate, nor descriptive enough. Just knowing the answer doesn't mean you can nor actually do any of those things. It only shows that you can remember the answer that is acceptable for that question. (Note: not the correct answer - just the acceptable one.)
A failure to provide the acceptable answer means that one or more of the following are true:
You didn't know the acceptable answer. You answered the correct answer, rather than the acceptable one. The question was not written in a way you could answer. You didn't give a shit about a test which has no bearing on your life, and which does not count towards your grade. You missed the bubble or incompletely bubbled in the answer. You were not able to read or understand the question.
A huge failing in this country is that many people somehow assume that the tests/standards/teachers/administrators/creators/scorers actually know what's going on, and are doing their jobs well. A secondary failing is the assumption that tests which are easy to score accurately test a student's knowledge. In all reality, they test all the above things, which, by and large, are not the things we think they are testing. (e.g. the ability to find the hypotenuse if given the lengths of the other two sides of a right triangle.)
But hey - better we have standards than slip behind the rest of the world in education. Think of the Children!
My little sister, while both creative and intelligent, just didn't get my D&D playing either. To explain why I dug it, I ran her a non-D&D, generic medieval/fantasy scenario. Listen to a description of the times and lands, pick a character, (13 yr old boy escaping the serfdom of his parents under a mean regional lord) and pretend you're him.
She found herself in a world which was similar to hers, but not exactly the same. And we both still laugh on occasion about her choices in that world. Perhaps the best was trying to break into a locked stone building to see what was inside. Not strong enough to kick the door down, she climbed onto the thatched roof and pulled up the thatch to get in. Since it was dark inside, she lit a torch, and stuck it through the hole in the thatch to see inside the building...
It was at that precise moment that she realized why I love playing D&D, and why it's so much fun.
Actually, I posted a short snarky comment because I had to go teach a science class. What you wrote is spot on, and touches on what I really wanted to say if given the time. Now that I'm taking the time...
While granted I'm in the NE US and not in the bible-belt, I still teach science at a public high school. With the passing of NCLB, there is an increased focus on standards, and teaching to those standards. States are required, due to this law, to assess whether or not their schools are effectively teaching the state-mandated standards. Teachers, therefore, are judged based on whether or not their students are successful on the state-designed tests.
On more than one front, this proposed law is completely pointless. The real test of what Florida wants teachers to teach is in what it assesses at the state-wide level. Without being able to see those assessments (being changed to align with the new state standards by 2012) there is no real way for me to tell what they are really looking for teachers to teach. Terminating teachers is usually pretty hard to do. By far the easiest way is if a teacher's students consistently fail state-wide exams.
And despite the flamebait headline, this also means that you can't get fired FOR TEACHING EVOLUTION. In Florida, that's not a given. The state standards that just passed had to be revised to tone down the endorsement of evolution just to get through. In that light, given that this text reads in part, "freedom to objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution", I'm somewhat tempted to say that this is PRO-Evolution, rather than anti-evolution. Although to be fair, it works both ways.
The upshot is that A) You're 100% right, and this is already covered in part by free speech. B) Teachers are judged and can be terminated based on how students do on state assessments, so this is pointless. C) While you now can't get fired for this, there are plenty of things buried in most contracts to get a teacher terminated for, if you really look hard enough. All in all, not a useful law in any meaningful way.
Good call. I was about to post a similar thing by proposing that we allow for teaching things which "contradict" standardized math - I.E. 2+2=5. Seems only fair that math gets in on the teaching of factually inaccurate information, since math forms the basis of much of science.
If you really want to play some sort of RPG, and have a few friends who feel the same, try Burning Wheel. I'll freely admit that it took me awhile to figure out wtf was going on, as it's a COMPLETELY different system than D&D. The math is limited, the rules are pretty simplified, and much more focus is put on actually playing your character than anything else. In fact, the only way to advance is to role-play your character well. Advancement isn't based on killing things, finding treasure, or completing quests. You can play the most sniveling, weaselly character you want and still advance faster than someone playing a tank, just by playing that character well.
The game is set up so that it is VERY player driven, with the entire system designed to rely upon character beliefs and goals, and the way they go about pursuing those goals. "Points" are given for attempting to achieve character goals, and playing the character aligned to their stated beliefs. If your character believes that fights should begin with a knife in the back, and you do so, points to you. If your character believes that courtesy is the most important virtue, and proceeds to tells the mayor to go shit in his hat, no points.
Even more interesting, the base game is a very inexpensive series of 3 books, covering just the rules, and nothing else. There is (last I checked) no official campaign world, which allows you to use whatever you feel like using. I have a friend who uses an entirely home-brew world, and one who ran a pretty sweet campaign based on the Midnight d20 campaign setting.
If you're truly sick of D&D, I'd recommend it. That, or D&D 4.0...;-)
What I find interesting is the contrast between your linux story and the rest of the "OMG, linux doesn't work on the desktop!" posts here. You're using linux for a pretty specialized task, that 99% of linux users will never use it for, and it works. You're using fairly specialized audio hardware that 99% of linux users will never use, and half of it just works.
I'm trying to think about what hardware I have lying around here which doesn't work well under linux....my USB headset has never done what I need it to do, mainly because I'm trying to use it with TeamSpeak, which requires direct hardware access, thus preventing software sound mixing. I have a few WinModems lying around, from when I was trying to get my mom's computer running under linux. But Winmodems only work 1/2 the time under windows, so I call that a draw.
Other than that, I'd agree with you that in my experience, more hardware works out-of-the-box under linux than under Windows. I'm really starting to wonder how many people here are using examples of linux from 2-3 years ago or more. In the last two years, linux on the desktop has made some amazing leaps.
If linux desktops suck so much, how is it that my mom loves hers so much?
Six months ago, she asked me to set her up with linux, because she was seeing how few issues (relative to her daily computer use) I was having. So I set her up a dual boot, XP and Kubuntu. It took her awhile. She asked me a fair number of questions. But she slowly fell in love with linux. Now she bitches when she goes to work or over to another family member's place and has to use XP.
All her hardware works. The only major issue we had was her Winmodem, which was fixed when they ran cable past her house. Everything else, dvd-drive, all-in-one printer, onboard sound, nvidia video card, olympus camera, etc worked out of the box.
You mention poor GUI consistency, and to be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about. Has there been an OS and related programs which has HAD GUI consistency? I know windows doesn't, and even the Macs I've used have been hit-or-miss, depending on the program.
As for Linux apps, I don't know what you mean by complete. They aren't shareware/nagware/cripleware, that's for sure. Sure, there are some with rough edges, but the same can be said for most Windows apps too.
I can agree with you that some linx communities aren't the friendliest or most knowledgeable. I've come across some real assholes on various forums before. But I've run across some really helpful and friendly people as well. It helps to approach other people calmly and to listen to them and work with them to help solve your problem. If you come across as a pretentious asshole, they are less likely to help you out. Speaking of which...
Too many important desktop apps aren't on Linux. Real users often need specific vertical-market apps, which usually go only to Windows.
You enjoy your vertical-market apps. I'm sure they will..get you higher...in the market. For myself, my mom, and a lot more people every day, we'll continue to enjoy linux on the desktop, as it allows us to do our horizontal apps in peace.
While good on the older ipods, the author doesn't always have the $$ to buy the latest and greatest to test against. Found that out the hard way when we got my mom a nice shiny new nano for christmas - last I knew, she still has to boot into XP to get music on it. Gtkpod does tend to lag a version or two behind.
My mom will be psyched when she no longer has to boot to XP to add music. I think the only thing left for her there is her tax software, and that's a once a year use. Linux is spreading - just slowly.
One of the last real hurdles is a solid sound manager, (stupid-easy gui like in windows) which PulseAudio seems to be on track to provide. Being able to two to four click to set a default sound device is a very useful thing for even an incompetent computer user.
The fact that my mom has nearly everything she needs in linux at the moment (and to be honest, I think her tax program might run under Wine) is an indication that linux is getting close to usable for the bulk of the non-technical population. Sure, it will lag in features for windows power-users, gamers, and specialists, but for the average joe, it's working.
My mom just discovered that there are dozens of solitaire games in the "Add/Remove Programs" menu under Ubuntu. She said, "What? You can actually ADD programs there? You can't in windows!" And she was amazed that there were 20k+ programs available, searchable, and installable with only a click or two. From her standpoint, that's FAR easier than navigating shareware/nagware websites to download and install games which are often crippled versions of useful programs.
At the same time, she's thrilled when ALL of her programs update at the same time, on her command. If she doesn't want to click the little triangle, she doesn't. And eight different programs don't pop up eight different "There's an Update Available!" notices while windows updates in the background, screwing over any semblance of user experience. And for most non-technical users, who let all their third-party apps do that, I'd guess that would be a similar experience. They just need the introduction.
Linux already has 95% of what you need to browse the web, and do all the stupid shit that people do on it. Outside of a few windows-only plugins for a few off-the-beaten-path websites, the average joe can do what he usually does on the internet. Combine that with full control over program updates, and the ease of finding and installing apps, and I think linux will do a fair job of converting the sheeple masses, once they get that initial introduction. I'm truly convinced of it. My mom is starting to become an evangelist about linux, due to those reasons.
Outside my house it is currently 21 degrees F. When I discuss with my students the potential of using hydrogen as a clean fuel, as it releases only water vapor as a byproduct, they generally realize that there is another issue with it other than greenhouse gas emissions. In a good portion of the world, there is this thing called winter. A massive increase in water vapor on roadways when the temp is below freezing is not necessarily a byproduct that many people think of when debating a hydrogen infrastructure.
Not to say that it can't be overcome, but it's not something that most people think of.
Out of curiosity, who is your clan? I've been lazing around a small, primarily UT, but occasionally WC3 clan, with a similar age range. Although there are only about ten or so of us actually active at any one time. We're pretty much a non-windows group, so I'm not thinking about immediately switching, but I'm curious who you are.
For the first 25 years of my life, I felt likewise. Now granted, my tastes may have changed, but in addition I found the "secret" about beer:
The cheap stuff tastes like crap. The expensive stuff is often delicious.
The barrier to entry? Cost. You won't go buy yourself an expensive chocolate stout or fine Belgian ale because they cost a lot of money, and you don't like beer. However, should that introduction ever be made, you might find that you can appreciate a good beer.
It is possible that you really dislike beer, but most of the people I've found who say that haven't had a really good beer. Budweiser and Fosters and the rest of the beers which look and taste like urine aren't worth drinking. They make god sad.
If you're in the US, and *think* you hate beer, find a bottle of Chocolate Stout from the Rogue Brewery. If you're in the NY area, find a Three Philosophers from Brewery Ommegang in upstate NY. Basically, try beers which cost the same as a good wine.
Just as a real wine aficionado would happily drink a $20 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, but would recoil in horror at a $4 bottle of Boone's Farm Fuzzy Navel flavored malt beverage, so do beer aficionados turn their nose up at beers which look and taste like mine a few hours after I drink them. 99% of stores sell crap "beer", for the same people who appreciate Boone's Farm and Arbor Mist "wines". 95% of restaurants and bars do likewise.
Even if you think you hate beer, don't be afraid to keep looking. Stay away from the big breweries, and try the darker wares of microbreweries. If you hate bitter beers, stay away from Pale Ales, especially IPA. (Even I can't do those.) There are some amazing Belgian beers in the Dubbel, Saison and Lambic styles, which easily rival fine wines. There's a very good chance you can find one or three beers you like, if you look hard enough. Of course, that's assuming you care enough to try.
Of topic, but I'm somewhat curious: What determines if you have to enter a CAPTCHA to post? I've never seen one, so I'm guessing it's either new or low karma accounts. Anyone know for sure?
Even more interestingly, how does Fair Use work if the family bought or otherwise owns a piece of music? For example, I buy a copy of my family's favorite smooth jazz to put on at dinnertime. I buy this for my family to enjoy, and present it as a gift to them. Or we all pitch in a few bucks to buy the CD.
Assuming that the owner is allowed Fair Use rights, at what point do you get cut off? Can a couple both have an mp3 copy of their joint-owned CD on an iPod? How about a family of 4? Family of 8?
Joint and multiple ownership is not a new concept. I've jointly owned a large amount of media with my family members, sometimes using it together, sometimes swapping it back and forth.
Obviously you would be be prevented from "buying a CD for the whole world to share" and then offering them mp3 rips of it. Wouldn't you?
All that carbon used to be in the air, making the globe warmer than it is today.
Not exactly. All that carbon used to be in the air millions of years ago, FOR millions of years. Our fossil fuels didn't spontaneously form one day, sucking all the carbon dioxide out of the air. This was a very slow process, where over millions of years layers of plants were buried in sediments, slowly leaching carbon out of the atmosphere.
It is true that as temps go up, plants grow better. And if we were releasing this stored carbon on the same timescale as it was stored, it wouldn't be an issue. The issue is that we're releasing all of that stored carbon over perhaps three centuries, rather than a few million years. It's not the magnitude that has scientists worried - it's the timescale.
Really, the big issue is that our climate has been pretty stable for about ten thousand years. What has everyone all excited is that it's now pretty obviously changing. This means populations will eventually have to move, countries may change size and shape, and centers of agriculture may have to move. All this upsets the stability that we as humans take for granted.
Once again, it's not the magnitude, it's the timescale. Humans have always been forced to move around by climate changes. Now we're looking at it happening over a human lifespan, rather than several.
It's not hard to do, and there are so many damn good reasons to do so. I teach at a public high school. I cruise slashdot, and occasionally post fairly heartfelt stuff. And some stupid shit. I'm fairly easily connected to the UT clan I'm involved with, and on our boards, I often post as my inner, crude self.
While I'm not big on the social networking front, there's no way in hell I'd ever, EVER want to share who I am online with my students. If they want to email me, there's my work email. If they ask what I do outside of school, I tell them I occasionally play UT. But there's no reason for me to mix work and personal. And with the anonymity of the internet, I see no reason to do so.
It might be fine, 95% of the time if I mixed the two. But it only takes that 5% to cost me my job. I think I run about 4 personalities online. If I could be me, all the time, that would be great. But I can't always be me at work, and if work has access to me online, I have to put on the same suit there.
Really, unless my employer mandated I run social networking, I wouldn't. And if they did, they'd get their own "employer friendly" profile. Really, how hard is this?
Or they could have just made a web page which linked to.ogv episodes of all their stuff.
Yeah. That's it. No other work required.
Since it's open for everyone and their mother to code for, anyone can toss together a browser plugin, stand-alone player, combo p2p/video player "for faster downloads", some java atrocity smeared with ads, or even another website which does a better job of organising, taggng, and searching for episodes.
Let it go. Let everyone play with it, sink their teeth into it, do something amazing with it. Let the fans make up massive wikis for their shows which link transcripts of every word to the right place in the right episode.
In the end you'll have a larger/stronger fanbase, and the new episodes to tease them into watching "right now". And all you have to do is LESS WORK, spending LESS MONEY.
The catch is that windows users don't have to do something stupid to get infected. I'm pretty savvy about windows, having used the OS for most of my life before turning to Linux flavors 3-4 years ago. I'm always pretty cautious, keep those installs up to date, and always install AV (AVG lately) and Firefox as the first two things on a newly formatted system.
With that said, I still managed to get a recent install trojaned all to hell. My crime? Before the first reboot, I had installed motherboard drivers and video drivers. After the reboot, as I was downloading round #2 of patches, I decided to see if the onboard sound worked. Plugged in speakers, fired up WMP (since I was lacking any other media player, of course) and realized that I had no audio easily accessible since it couldn't see the ext3/reiserfs drives. So, I did what in hindsight was a stupid thing, and clicked "recommended internet radio stations" and clicked on the first one in the list. And was instantly hit with 3-4 different trojans.
Now to be fair, I wasn't using a fully patched system at that point. But the fact that firing up an internet radio link through the default media player loaded me with trojans, AFTER the first round of patches, is complete and utter rubbish. I can understand the stupidity of having to download crap from shady sites, and being asked to click to install sketchy things. I can't understand how such a limited action could totally hose a system. That blows my mind. To make matters worse, it was from the pre-installed favorites called something like "Recommended Internet Radio". Exactly who recommended that?
There are stupid users on both systems, and both deserve to be ridiculed (and then educated). But on the windows side, it doesn't take much in the way of stupid to get a box fairly well loaded with trojans and spyware. There are major design flaws which allow it to happen.
What happens when someone gets a huge bill because of their PC being owned?
I'd hope that they'd get an offer from their ISP to waive that bill in exchange for letting a technician clean it up, install some decent AV/Anti-spyware, and a free educational booklet on "how not to get 0wned".
Then I'd hope that the next time that they got such a bill, they'd either pay it and keep paying it, or they'd be kicked off their internet service. Because that's one sure-fire way to start reducing the amount of spam in the world.
If your software predicts a terrorist attack at a specific location, you will increase security at that location. If the terrorists see this increased security, they may either not attack, or they might choose another location.
If they choose another location, your prediction didn't really help, unless they chose a far less important location to attack.
If they choose not to attack, then all is well. Until this happens too many times in a row, and either the terrorists go completely random, or the general populace complains that you're not doing anything but scaring people with imaginary attacks.
Just because you can predict what will happen doesn't mean you've solved a useful problem. It's possible that you've just wasted a lot of time and energy making the whole thing more complicated.
If you don't like either party's candidate, kudos for not voting for either. There are other choices, and as soon as enough people grow some balls and vote for those other choices we'll get out of this stupid two-party trap. But as long as everyone keeps saying "I'm not voting for X because I like them, I'm voting for X because they are marginally better than Y" we'll continue to suffer the dilemma of having two bad parties.
It doesn't take a majority vote to get a third party in the running - it will probably only take 5-10% of the vote in two consecutive elections. As soon as a third party has enough votes to threaten the current parties' regular "52% to 48%" outcomes, they will sit up and become all sorts of compromising. Or falter and die. Or just crush the third party.
I just wish more people would realize that "voting for X because they aren't as bad as Y" is a very poor short term fix. "Voting for Z because I like their platform" is a good long term solution.
The original post raises a number of questions, not least how the author managed to type in so much text and still be first post. Perhaps he is a subscriber.
I was wondering about that too. I sent an email to Cmdrtaco and asked him to put an asterisk or something next to their names so we can figure out who subscribes. He seemed to like the idea.
If your business strategy relies on people not being assholes on the internet, may I wish you all the luck in the world. Since the first goatse was posted, it was clear that the internet breeds assholes...
Slashdot Mirror
Just ask your Uncle Jack!
I intentionally left that part out.
My standard example that I give in regards to these standards/tests is along the lines of:
To be healthy, you should:
A) Eat vegetables
B) Exercise
C) Take a vitamin
D) Both A and B
If you answer "D", I assume you are healthy.
The question is not complete, nor completely accurate, nor descriptive enough. Just knowing the answer doesn't mean you can nor actually do any of those things. It only shows that you can remember the answer that is acceptable for that question. (Note: not the correct answer - just the acceptable one.)
A failure to provide the acceptable answer means that one or more of the following are true:
You didn't know the acceptable answer.
You answered the correct answer, rather than the acceptable one.
The question was not written in a way you could answer.
You didn't give a shit about a test which has no bearing on your life, and which does not count towards your grade.
You missed the bubble or incompletely bubbled in the answer.
You were not able to read or understand the question.
A huge failing in this country is that many people somehow assume that the tests/standards/teachers/administrators/creators/scorers actually know what's going on, and are doing their jobs well. A secondary failing is the assumption that tests which are easy to score accurately test a student's knowledge. In all reality, they test all the above things, which, by and large, are not the things we think they are testing. (e.g. the ability to find the hypotenuse if given the lengths of the other two sides of a right triangle.)
But hey - better we have standards than slip behind the rest of the world in education. Think of the Children!
My little sister, while both creative and intelligent, just didn't get my D&D playing either. To explain why I dug it, I ran her a non-D&D, generic medieval/fantasy scenario. Listen to a description of the times and lands, pick a character, (13 yr old boy escaping the serfdom of his parents under a mean regional lord) and pretend you're him.
She found herself in a world which was similar to hers, but not exactly the same. And we both still laugh on occasion about her choices in that world. Perhaps the best was trying to break into a locked stone building to see what was inside. Not strong enough to kick the door down, she climbed onto the thatched roof and pulled up the thatch to get in. Since it was dark inside, she lit a torch, and stuck it through the hole in the thatch to see inside the building...
It was at that precise moment that she realized why I love playing D&D, and why it's so much fun.
Actually, I posted a short snarky comment because I had to go teach a science class. What you wrote is spot on, and touches on what I really wanted to say if given the time. Now that I'm taking the time...
While granted I'm in the NE US and not in the bible-belt, I still teach science at a public high school. With the passing of NCLB, there is an increased focus on standards, and teaching to those standards. States are required, due to this law, to assess whether or not their schools are effectively teaching the state-mandated standards. Teachers, therefore, are judged based on whether or not their students are successful on the state-designed tests.
On more than one front, this proposed law is completely pointless. The real test of what Florida wants teachers to teach is in what it assesses at the state-wide level. Without being able to see those assessments (being changed to align with the new state standards by 2012) there is no real way for me to tell what they are really looking for teachers to teach. Terminating teachers is usually pretty hard to do. By far the easiest way is if a teacher's students consistently fail state-wide exams.
And despite the flamebait headline, this also means that you can't get fired FOR TEACHING EVOLUTION. In Florida, that's not a given. The state standards that just passed had to be revised to tone down the endorsement of evolution just to get through. In that light, given that this text reads in part, "freedom to objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution", I'm somewhat tempted to say that this is PRO-Evolution, rather than anti-evolution. Although to be fair, it works both ways.
The upshot is that A) You're 100% right, and this is already covered in part by free speech. B) Teachers are judged and can be terminated based on how students do on state assessments, so this is pointless. C) While you now can't get fired for this, there are plenty of things buried in most contracts to get a teacher terminated for, if you really look hard enough. All in all, not a useful law in any meaningful way.
Good call. I was about to post a similar thing by proposing that we allow for teaching things which "contradict" standardized math - I.E. 2+2=5. Seems only fair that math gets in on the teaching of factually inaccurate information, since math forms the basis of much of science.
If you really want to play some sort of RPG, and have a few friends who feel the same, try Burning Wheel. I'll freely admit that it took me awhile to figure out wtf was going on, as it's a COMPLETELY different system than D&D. The math is limited, the rules are pretty simplified, and much more focus is put on actually playing your character than anything else. In fact, the only way to advance is to role-play your character well. Advancement isn't based on killing things, finding treasure, or completing quests. You can play the most sniveling, weaselly character you want and still advance faster than someone playing a tank, just by playing that character well.
;-)
The game is set up so that it is VERY player driven, with the entire system designed to rely upon character beliefs and goals, and the way they go about pursuing those goals. "Points" are given for attempting to achieve character goals, and playing the character aligned to their stated beliefs. If your character believes that fights should begin with a knife in the back, and you do so, points to you. If your character believes that courtesy is the most important virtue, and proceeds to tells the mayor to go shit in his hat, no points.
Even more interesting, the base game is a very inexpensive series of 3 books, covering just the rules, and nothing else. There is (last I checked) no official campaign world, which allows you to use whatever you feel like using. I have a friend who uses an entirely home-brew world, and one who ran a pretty sweet campaign based on the Midnight d20 campaign setting.
If you're truly sick of D&D, I'd recommend it. That, or D&D 4.0...
What I find interesting is the contrast between your linux story and the rest of the "OMG, linux doesn't work on the desktop!" posts here. You're using linux for a pretty specialized task, that 99% of linux users will never use it for, and it works. You're using fairly specialized audio hardware that 99% of linux users will never use, and half of it just works.
I'm trying to think about what hardware I have lying around here which doesn't work well under linux....my USB headset has never done what I need it to do, mainly because I'm trying to use it with TeamSpeak, which requires direct hardware access, thus preventing software sound mixing. I have a few WinModems lying around, from when I was trying to get my mom's computer running under linux. But Winmodems only work 1/2 the time under windows, so I call that a draw.
Other than that, I'd agree with you that in my experience, more hardware works out-of-the-box under linux than under Windows. I'm really starting to wonder how many people here are using examples of linux from 2-3 years ago or more. In the last two years, linux on the desktop has made some amazing leaps.
Six months ago, she asked me to set her up with linux, because she was seeing how few issues (relative to her daily computer use) I was having. So I set her up a dual boot, XP and Kubuntu. It took her awhile. She asked me a fair number of questions. But she slowly fell in love with linux. Now she bitches when she goes to work or over to another family member's place and has to use XP.
All her hardware works. The only major issue we had was her Winmodem, which was fixed when they ran cable past her house. Everything else, dvd-drive, all-in-one printer, onboard sound, nvidia video card, olympus camera, etc worked out of the box.
You mention poor GUI consistency, and to be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about. Has there been an OS and related programs which has HAD GUI consistency? I know windows doesn't, and even the Macs I've used have been hit-or-miss, depending on the program.
As for Linux apps, I don't know what you mean by complete. They aren't shareware/nagware/cripleware, that's for sure. Sure, there are some with rough edges, but the same can be said for most Windows apps too.
I can agree with you that some linx communities aren't the friendliest or most knowledgeable. I've come across some real assholes on various forums before. But I've run across some really helpful and friendly people as well. It helps to approach other people calmly and to listen to them and work with them to help solve your problem. If you come across as a pretentious asshole, they are less likely to help you out. Speaking of which...
You enjoy your vertical-market apps. I'm sure they will..get you higher...in the market. For myself, my mom, and a lot more people every day, we'll continue to enjoy linux on the desktop, as it allows us to do our horizontal apps in peace.
While good on the older ipods, the author doesn't always have the $$ to buy the latest and greatest to test against. Found that out the hard way when we got my mom a nice shiny new nano for christmas - last I knew, she still has to boot into XP to get music on it. Gtkpod does tend to lag a version or two behind.
My mom will be psyched when she no longer has to boot to XP to add music. I think the only thing left for her there is her tax software, and that's a once a year use. Linux is spreading - just slowly.
One of the last real hurdles is a solid sound manager, (stupid-easy gui like in windows) which PulseAudio seems to be on track to provide. Being able to two to four click to set a default sound device is a very useful thing for even an incompetent computer user.
The fact that my mom has nearly everything she needs in linux at the moment (and to be honest, I think her tax program might run under Wine) is an indication that linux is getting close to usable for the bulk of the non-technical population. Sure, it will lag in features for windows power-users, gamers, and specialists, but for the average joe, it's working.
My mom just discovered that there are dozens of solitaire games in the "Add/Remove Programs" menu under Ubuntu. She said, "What? You can actually ADD programs there? You can't in windows!" And she was amazed that there were 20k+ programs available, searchable, and installable with only a click or two. From her standpoint, that's FAR easier than navigating shareware/nagware websites to download and install games which are often crippled versions of useful programs.
At the same time, she's thrilled when ALL of her programs update at the same time, on her command. If she doesn't want to click the little triangle, she doesn't. And eight different programs don't pop up eight different "There's an Update Available!" notices while windows updates in the background, screwing over any semblance of user experience. And for most non-technical users, who let all their third-party apps do that, I'd guess that would be a similar experience. They just need the introduction.
Linux already has 95% of what you need to browse the web, and do all the stupid shit that people do on it. Outside of a few windows-only plugins for a few off-the-beaten-path websites, the average joe can do what he usually does on the internet. Combine that with full control over program updates, and the ease of finding and installing apps, and I think linux will do a fair job of converting the sheeple masses, once they get that initial introduction. I'm truly convinced of it. My mom is starting to become an evangelist about linux, due to those reasons.
Outside my house it is currently 21 degrees F. When I discuss with my students the potential of using hydrogen as a clean fuel, as it releases only water vapor as a byproduct, they generally realize that there is another issue with it other than greenhouse gas emissions. In a good portion of the world, there is this thing called winter. A massive increase in water vapor on roadways when the temp is below freezing is not necessarily a byproduct that many people think of when debating a hydrogen infrastructure.
Not to say that it can't be overcome, but it's not something that most people think of.
Out of curiosity, who is your clan? I've been lazing around a small, primarily UT, but occasionally WC3 clan, with a similar age range. Although there are only about ten or so of us actually active at any one time. We're pretty much a non-windows group, so I'm not thinking about immediately switching, but I'm curious who you are.
For the first 25 years of my life, I felt likewise. Now granted, my tastes may have changed, but in addition I found the "secret" about beer:
The cheap stuff tastes like crap. The expensive stuff is often delicious.
The barrier to entry? Cost. You won't go buy yourself an expensive chocolate stout or fine Belgian ale because they cost a lot of money, and you don't like beer. However, should that introduction ever be made, you might find that you can appreciate a good beer.
It is possible that you really dislike beer, but most of the people I've found who say that haven't had a really good beer. Budweiser and Fosters and the rest of the beers which look and taste like urine aren't worth drinking. They make god sad.
If you're in the US, and *think* you hate beer, find a bottle of Chocolate Stout from the Rogue Brewery. If you're in the NY area, find a Three Philosophers from Brewery Ommegang in upstate NY. Basically, try beers which cost the same as a good wine.
Just as a real wine aficionado would happily drink a $20 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, but would recoil in horror at a $4 bottle of Boone's Farm Fuzzy Navel flavored malt beverage, so do beer aficionados turn their nose up at beers which look and taste like mine a few hours after I drink them. 99% of stores sell crap "beer", for the same people who appreciate Boone's Farm and Arbor Mist "wines". 95% of restaurants and bars do likewise.
Even if you think you hate beer, don't be afraid to keep looking. Stay away from the big breweries, and try the darker wares of microbreweries. If you hate bitter beers, stay away from Pale Ales, especially IPA. (Even I can't do those.) There are some amazing Belgian beers in the Dubbel, Saison and Lambic styles, which easily rival fine wines. There's a very good chance you can find one or three beers you like, if you look hard enough. Of course, that's assuming you care enough to try.
Of topic, but I'm somewhat curious: What determines if you have to enter a CAPTCHA to post? I've never seen one, so I'm guessing it's either new or low karma accounts. Anyone know for sure?
Even more interestingly, how does Fair Use work if the family bought or otherwise owns a piece of music? For example, I buy a copy of my family's favorite smooth jazz to put on at dinnertime. I buy this for my family to enjoy, and present it as a gift to them. Or we all pitch in a few bucks to buy the CD.
Assuming that the owner is allowed Fair Use rights, at what point do you get cut off? Can a couple both have an mp3 copy of their joint-owned CD on an iPod? How about a family of 4? Family of 8?
Joint and multiple ownership is not a new concept. I've jointly owned a large amount of media with my family members, sometimes using it together, sometimes swapping it back and forth.
Obviously you would be be prevented from "buying a CD for the whole world to share" and then offering them mp3 rips of it. Wouldn't you?
Not exactly. All that carbon used to be in the air millions of years ago, FOR millions of years. Our fossil fuels didn't spontaneously form one day, sucking all the carbon dioxide out of the air. This was a very slow process, where over millions of years layers of plants were buried in sediments, slowly leaching carbon out of the atmosphere.
It is true that as temps go up, plants grow better. And if we were releasing this stored carbon on the same timescale as it was stored, it wouldn't be an issue. The issue is that we're releasing all of that stored carbon over perhaps three centuries, rather than a few million years. It's not the magnitude that has scientists worried - it's the timescale.
Really, the big issue is that our climate has been pretty stable for about ten thousand years. What has everyone all excited is that it's now pretty obviously changing. This means populations will eventually have to move, countries may change size and shape, and centers of agriculture may have to move. All this upsets the stability that we as humans take for granted.
Once again, it's not the magnitude, it's the timescale. Humans have always been forced to move around by climate changes. Now we're looking at it happening over a human lifespan, rather than several.
I'm a youngster. I only did this 8 years ago.
Really, I don't see why people *don't*.
It's not hard to do, and there are so many damn good reasons to do so. I teach at a public high school. I cruise slashdot, and occasionally post fairly heartfelt stuff. And some stupid shit. I'm fairly easily connected to the UT clan I'm involved with, and on our boards, I often post as my inner, crude self.
While I'm not big on the social networking front, there's no way in hell I'd ever, EVER want to share who I am online with my students. If they want to email me, there's my work email. If they ask what I do outside of school, I tell them I occasionally play UT. But there's no reason for me to mix work and personal. And with the anonymity of the internet, I see no reason to do so.
It might be fine, 95% of the time if I mixed the two. But it only takes that 5% to cost me my job. I think I run about 4 personalities online. If I could be me, all the time, that would be great. But I can't always be me at work, and if work has access to me online, I have to put on the same suit there.
Really, unless my employer mandated I run social networking, I wouldn't. And if they did, they'd get their own "employer friendly" profile. Really, how hard is this?
Or they could have just made a web page which linked to .ogv episodes of all their stuff.
Yeah. That's it. No other work required.
Since it's open for everyone and their mother to code for, anyone can toss together a browser plugin, stand-alone player, combo p2p/video player "for faster downloads", some java atrocity smeared with ads, or even another website which does a better job of organising, taggng, and searching for episodes.
Let it go. Let everyone play with it, sink their teeth into it, do something amazing with it. Let the fans make up massive wikis for their shows which link transcripts of every word to the right place in the right episode.
In the end you'll have a larger/stronger fanbase, and the new episodes to tease them into watching "right now". And all you have to do is LESS WORK, spending LESS MONEY.
The catch is that windows users don't have to do something stupid to get infected. I'm pretty savvy about windows, having used the OS for most of my life before turning to Linux flavors 3-4 years ago. I'm always pretty cautious, keep those installs up to date, and always install AV (AVG lately) and Firefox as the first two things on a newly formatted system.
With that said, I still managed to get a recent install trojaned all to hell. My crime? Before the first reboot, I had installed motherboard drivers and video drivers. After the reboot, as I was downloading round #2 of patches, I decided to see if the onboard sound worked. Plugged in speakers, fired up WMP (since I was lacking any other media player, of course) and realized that I had no audio easily accessible since it couldn't see the ext3/reiserfs drives. So, I did what in hindsight was a stupid thing, and clicked "recommended internet radio stations" and clicked on the first one in the list. And was instantly hit with 3-4 different trojans.
Now to be fair, I wasn't using a fully patched system at that point. But the fact that firing up an internet radio link through the default media player loaded me with trojans, AFTER the first round of patches, is complete and utter rubbish. I can understand the stupidity of having to download crap from shady sites, and being asked to click to install sketchy things. I can't understand how such a limited action could totally hose a system. That blows my mind. To make matters worse, it was from the pre-installed favorites called something like "Recommended Internet Radio". Exactly who recommended that?
There are stupid users on both systems, and both deserve to be ridiculed (and then educated). But on the windows side, it doesn't take much in the way of stupid to get a box fairly well loaded with trojans and spyware. There are major design flaws which allow it to happen.
Then I'd hope that the next time that they got such a bill, they'd either pay it and keep paying it, or they'd be kicked off their internet service. Because that's one sure-fire way to start reducing the amount of spam in the world.
Which also leads to an important point:
If your software predicts a terrorist attack at a specific location, you will increase security at that location. If the terrorists see this increased security, they may either not attack, or they might choose another location.
If they choose another location, your prediction didn't really help, unless they chose a far less important location to attack.
If they choose not to attack, then all is well. Until this happens too many times in a row, and either the terrorists go completely random, or the general populace complains that you're not doing anything but scaring people with imaginary attacks.
Just because you can predict what will happen doesn't mean you've solved a useful problem. It's possible that you've just wasted a lot of time and energy making the whole thing more complicated.
Newton would have smiled, but it would have shocked Ben Franklin.
Back in my day, we called these logs . What? I'm not 30 yet, and it's still considered "my day", and they're still called "logs"?
Oh.
If you don't like either party's candidate, kudos for not voting for either. There are other choices, and as soon as enough people grow some balls and vote for those other choices we'll get out of this stupid two-party trap. But as long as everyone keeps saying "I'm not voting for X because I like them, I'm voting for X because they are marginally better than Y" we'll continue to suffer the dilemma of having two bad parties.
It doesn't take a majority vote to get a third party in the running - it will probably only take 5-10% of the vote in two consecutive elections. As soon as a third party has enough votes to threaten the current parties' regular "52% to 48%" outcomes, they will sit up and become all sorts of compromising. Or falter and die. Or just crush the third party.
I just wish more people would realize that "voting for X because they aren't as bad as Y" is a very poor short term fix. "Voting for Z because I like their platform" is a good long term solution.
I was wondering about that too. I sent an email to Cmdrtaco and asked him to put an asterisk or something next to their names so we can figure out who subscribes. He seemed to like the idea.
If your business strategy relies on people not being assholes on the internet, may I wish you all the luck in the world. Since the first goatse was posted, it was clear that the internet breeds assholes...
.....shitcock.