One thing to remember is that the college population is not made up entirely of 19 year old HS graduates. Many of them are older gen Xers who dropped out of college back in the nineties in favor of getting a job in the booming tech industry.
Granted a lot of those people were wannabe hacks that didn't know shit about computers, but got a job anyway because basically *anyone* could get a job back then, but some of us knew which direction was up at least - having been programming computers since the 80's - and just wanted to bypass the stupid educational system that was taking WAY too friggin long to finish. Many of these people (myself included) decided after the bust to go back and get that elusive degree, only to find out recently that it ain't going to do a damn bit of good so why bother?
Many jobs in IT today do stipulate that the potential employee have a college degree with X number of years experience, but most of those (and many others) will accept "equivalent experience" as a substitute for the degree. The only place I can see this being an issue is for government contracting (you are on a lower pay scale w/o a degree), and possibly places like MS, IBM, and Sun... but who the fuck wants to work there anyway?
People in my position could go back and finish a degree, and then possibly get an advanced degree, but I'm getting older and starting to burn out writing code for someone else. In the next few years I will be starting up a business or two anyway and I doubt that a CS degree will help with that.
Anyway, I guess that I would like to have that piece of paper that says I actually finished the program, but realistically thinking it just isn't worth my time anymore.
I've read a lot of posts about how to trick the system so you won't have to pay VAT or other taxes, but an even simpler system might be to just have an American friend fly the laptop to you.
Pay for his airfare, let him sleep on your couch, and you still come out ahead. He gets a free vacation, and you save money on your laptop.
Going home he can just tell customs that the laptop was broken, or stolen, or that he got pissed off and hit the damn thing with a hammer... It's not going to matter really, I mean how many times do people actually want your laptop serial #, and even if they get it (traveling, etc) they're not going to run a national laptop serial # search for every passenger with a laptop.
If any researchers are reading this post, I have a cool idea that I'd like to see in the future... part of it came from a Popular Science a few months ago:
Instead of using a gasoline powered engine to provide the energy, there should be research into how to transfer energy from the human body. I mean, who wouldn't love to eat high sugar/carbohydrate foods all day to power their exoskeleton?
That kind of technology could be used for a multitude of other things as well.
Take it to the next level. Since I'm your friend, would you please lend me $5,000? Can I come stay at your house for a few months? Can I borrow your credit card to go buy some computer stuff? I promise, I'll stick to a limit you set. No? Why? I thought we were friends?
Aw, come on! Man this lame group of posts has been sitting here for more than long enough for someone to come up with an intelligent reply for me to mod up... but no, I'll have to do it myself it seems.
Ok, first of all, everyone in this section who has posted with some stupid ass comment like "ok, you're all my friends, give me 500 bucks" or like the parent who says "give me your credit card, we're friends right?" in response to the grandparent who said that he shares files with all of his friends (ie. everyone) has really got to get some psychological help to undo all of the brainwashing they have subjected themselves to. That, or just get a fucking clue.
Giving or lending people money implies that I am without that money until (if) the borrower gives it back. Sharing bits does not come with that implication, I am free to continue to use it as long as I wish.
I am against copyright infringement, but I do absofuckinglutely hate it when stupid people try to spew out their uninformed and nonsensical philosophies without really thinking about the issue.
Wake up people! Open your eyes and make that little brain think!
To make the transition now from gasoline to hydrogen not only improves emissions from vehicles, but creates a powerful demand for more hydrogen. The process that extracts hydrogen from refined oils doesn't have to release the pollutants into the atmosphere, I'm sure that it could be used elsewhere.
Besides, once the infrastructure is built, there are severalalternatives
to getting oil from the ground.
Had the Germany not attacked the USSR, the Soviets would have happily split Poland with Germany, and annexed/invaded their Eastern European neighbors; they certainly wouldn't have come to the defense of Britain
I have to agree with much of your post, but I differ in opinion with a few of the items you list. First, if Germany hadn't attacked the USSR, the USSR would have invaded Europe. All of it. The war would have been fought on different lands, but would have been fought nonetheless.
Had the British negotiated a surrender with Germany instead of being the lone holdout against Germany, most of Europe would today speak German
I don't think that everyone would have had to learn German... Hitler was more interested in preserving the European culture (albeit the anti-jewish European culture), but all the nations that he conquered kept their own language and culture.
If the Germans had not placed Hitler in power, if the Germans had not sustained him in power, if Hitler had not plunged Europe into a war of conquest and genocide, then not a single Allied bomb would have ever fallen on German territory.
Nope, you're right. The entire European continent would have been overrun by Stalin's communist armies.
Now that would be an interesting situation, wouldn't it?
It's funny that Churchill would say that, yet he wanted desperately to blanket the entire German countryside with cyanide dropped from bombers... to kill every single person in the country.
This isn't revisionist history either.. I saw this on the History Channel.
Even over 60 years on parts of the history of the Second World War are parts of myth pushed by vocal and powerful contempoary political groups.
I've been noticing more and more of this recently in my studies of WWII, and it is really disturbing.
...even to the point where several countries have laws against questioning popular dogma. Even by historians and acheologists
This is even more disturbing to me. The deeper I try to research specific topics that aren't really even that "hot" on the "popular dogma" scale I run into a lot of resistance. It is like there is someone at the bottom of all of this knowledge who is terrified of anyone finding out what really happened.
Soon enough, the French stopped firing, and as punishment Germany then took over all of France, hence ending the Vichy treaty.
I've always thought that this was an interesting fact of WWII, although I don't think that it was as much "punishment" as you say, but just generally looking out for their own interests.
You see, Germany feared an allied attack on their western border from the British whom they'd already expelled from the European continent. The treaty with the Vichy government was, I think, an attempt by Germany to have allies to help protect against the British invasion without sacrificing a lot of German troops that could then fight against the Russians (Germany's arch rival). I think that when the Vichies stopped protecting the border Germany had to send in some armies to secure the European seaboard. IMHO, I don't think that Germany cared much about France, or wanted to really "own" it as many people think... I think that their real goal was Russia, except that all of these other countries kept getting in his way, and he had to invade France to keep everyone else out until the Russia campaign was over.
I also think it's a bit interesting how most French people didn't mind the Germans taking over. It provided them with a stable government (which they hadn't had for a long time), and their lives were generally better with them there... that is until the Allies landed and bombed the hell out of the entire European continent. I think that must have sucked.
Wow, deja-vu. I am in almost the exact same situation, minus the drugs.
I have suffered from mild Tourette's Syndrome and ADHD my whole life, and it really affected me both positively and negatively as a child. I found that the ticks were somewhat embarrassing, so I started trying to control them mentally. It took a little while, but I was able to control them eventually. I wish that I'd been able to go through the neural feedback therapy also, I think it would have saved me a lot of mental anguish.
As for the ADHD, it was quite an issue for me. I skipped the first grade because the teachers saw that I was a pretty bright kid, but then they held me back a year because I couldn't concentrate on some of the subjects... I did find however, that after being able to (mostly) master the Tourette's symptoms I was better able to control my ADHD symptoms as well. It was (and still is) very difficult to maintain this control, but I am doing it somewhat successfully.
Do I wish that I'd taken drugs? Not really. From what I read now, it would probably have helped my attention problems, but exacerbated the Tourette's. It would also have prevented me from experiencing all of the positive effects of ADHD, like the random abundant creativeness that helped me excel in arts and writing, and the overwhelming passions I experience at times for wanting to know how things work and why that helped me excel in science, history, and maths.
To be honest, I really enjoy being the way that I am. I just could not imagine taking a drug that would take it all away. I just couldn't tolerate it.
So how did my parents keep sane? I played sports. Lots of them. Year round. Anything and everything under the sun. It helped me also in numerous ways: by keeping me healthy and active which used up all of my extra energy, and by teaching me about life, struggles, competition, and friendship. Man, I really enjoyed my childhood.
I think that the Neural Feedback Therapy that the parent mentioned is probably one of the best treatments available for any kid who has ADHD, Tourette's, or anything else like it. I'm sure it would have saved me years of struggling and effort in trying to replicate the results myself. And the upside of such therapy is that it doesn't rob you of the wonderful benefits of being ADHD!
I tend to agree on some levels with the parent poster, but I do feel strongly that other solutions should be researched.
I am realizing now as an adult that I exhibited just about every symptom of ADHD as a child, and by reading many of the posts in this forum I now have a better understanding of how other people have dealt with the issues of childhood ADHD.
I constantly felt bored with most subjects, and really wanted a challenge. I was allowed to skip the 1st grade because the teachers at the time realized what was going on. The problem was that two years later I was held back a grade because of the symptoms of ADHD. It is frustrating to have this type of mental feature, as most of the material was too easy, and I wanted to learn "new and cool" stuff. The problem was that I really couldn't control what was "new and cool"... My mind decided without my help, thus I would excel at some things, and lose concentration on others.
The problem nowadays is that we have drugs like Ritalin (et al) that allow the kid to concentrate, but don't allow the kid to express the other wonderful features of ADHD, the good ones. I think that the techniques mentioned by the thread owner might actually be a good thing, as it would help the child to control the ADHD instead of just suppressing it.
Let me explain why:
My case is a bit different from many others, as in addition to the concentration problems, I had (still have) strange mental and physical compulsions that I've never had diagnosed. It causes me to have strange ticks and to make strange sounds occasionally. As I've grown older I've learned to control these weird impulses so that they are now unnoticeable.
I find that these impulses become most apparent when my mind is most active, when I am excited about something, or when I am around other people with the same 'disorder'. However, by excercising my mental muscles, I am able to overcome the (extremely) strong impulses to twitch, to make a whistling sound, etc... It still comes out sometimes, but it is much, much less noticeable and I do not feel at all uncomfortable going to any type of social encounter.
Now I've also found that many of the mental tricks I employ to control these 'impulses' also work for the symptoms of ADHD. I am now returning to college studying advanced mathematics and physics, and can easily sit through lectures, and do all of my homework. It is tough sometimes, especially when I'm physically tired (sleep is SO important!), but I do it.
I think that if more people were able to 'control' their symptoms by mental excertion or other therapies and could regulate the disorder themselves without the need for drugs, then these kids would be able to have the best of both worlds, the concentration ability, and the creativeness and intellect of their overactive minds.
So in other words, the taxpayers should have a redundant, government run version of an already existing service, which is run by an evil company who has coordination and resources?
Yep.
Label me whatever you choose, but I think that this is a good idea. I'll explain why:
Qwest is bad, we all know that. Their infrastructure is decades old, and cannot handle the type of dataflow that the Utopia fiber optic lines can. Even if it could, they would likely charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars per customer per month for the connection. They are just a private company trying to reap the greatest profits. There is no problem with that, except that they are a monopoly. When monopolies exist, they are always a problem and a threat to capitalism for that market. That is why the US government has instituted various anti-trust measures to limit monopoly power. In the case of Qwest (and several other telecoms) this hasn't happened fast enough IMO and the entire telecom industry is becoming stagnant.
I would like to see many of the up-and-coming technologies have a chance to prove themselves in the same playing field as the big dogs. There have been some amazing inventions/innovations in the past few years, but they just don't have the resources to compete with the monopoly telecoms that control the nation's information infrastructure.
I'll shorten this by just saying that I am a believer in capitalism, but that I distrust and dislike monopolies in any form. If liking this Utopia project makes me a socialist, well fuck it, maybe I'm a bit of that too. I really don't think that the government is going to play a big role in the services part of the project however, I think they're just going to lease the lines to whoever wants access.
This is the part that I like. Qwest no longer has control, and has to compete just like everyone else - based on quality, reliability, and price. That, and the fact that I'll be able to get a helluva fat bidirectional pipe going into my house! Who could be against that?
Uh, didn't Qwest already build an infrastructure...? It is based on copper phone lines going to every house in the state.
I think that the Utopia project is the best thing that Utah has going for it. Seriously. The taxpayers not only get one of the best information infrastructures in the nation, but they also have the liberating privilege of choosing between many different companies' services.
Yes, Qwest already has an infrastructure, but it holds onto it with an iron fist. No competition, no choice, no opportunity for emerging companies to compete. With the control of this infrastructure in the cities' hands they can open it up for several different companies to lease. That makes it better for everyone... everyone that is except Qwest. Buahaaaahaahaaa!
A recent Arbitron (radio station ratings) study in Toronto showed...
Radio station ratings services like Arbitron use the above facts...
Arbitron found that, on one day in Toronto...
Arbitron studies presuppose that your station's listeners...
Ok, first off... Arbitron sucks. They are notoriously inaccurate, and their "studies" are nothing more than general half-educated guesses, or data collected from people that they have specifically targeted and paid off to take their surveys.
I have no issue with who is better, or who can piss further: Canadians, or Americans. Frankly I don't give a shit, but I do know that Arbitron is a lame duck.
People using Mac OS X or Linux don't call their OS "Windows" like MS customers do.
But they do refer to their window managers and GUIs by that "generic" term. There are many people that don't disassociate their GUI OS interface from the underlying OS, hence XWindows is really just a part of the operating system to them.
For Us, The Living, Robert A. Heinlein's first novel,... in fact, it works best as what it is, the last piece of Heinlein's work to be published, and it should almost certainly be one of the last pieces someone starting to read Heinlein should attempt.
Is this just a mis-type, or is his first novel the last one to be published...?
I wholeheartedly agree. I happened to land on C-SPAN while channel surfing in the early morning a few weeks ago when the British Parliament was having some kind of open debate where the representatives (?) all got to stand up and ask the Prime Minister some shockingly direct questions and demand answers. It was totally fucking amazing!
I must say that Mr. Blair is very quick, and was able to respond to everything with answers and logic that was actually relevant to the question... we don't get a lot of that here in the US.
The whole time I kept thinking "Shit, how come we don't have this in the US?!"
It just seems to me looking in from the outside that your political system is one big tv show. Every bill we hear about is the Grady bill or the Patriot Act or some other catchy name. Every politician has some stupid sound byte on tv and then a talking head tells you what to think. I don't know it just seems so plastic compared to our system.
Plastic is very descriptive of the soundbytes and fakeness of today's US politics. It seems that throughout history the nations that get too corrupt find some way to end up in a revolution, or are conquered, or something... I don't see that happening anytime soon here, but it is interesting to think about where this type of corrupt politics is taking our nation...
that BMW is going this route. I've been looking around recently at new cars, including the BMW 6 and 7 series. I'm planning to buy sometime this spring, but I guess I'll be looking more closely at the Lexus LS and Mercedes S series models.
Robotech.. ah, nostalgia! Man, I'd wake up at 5:00 am every morning and run downstairs to catch the show before getting on the bus to junior high school. It was the get-me-up juice in my life before I started drinking coffee.
That show I think really started the Anime revolution here in America. I mean, they actually SHOWED people getting killed, rather than parachuting out of an already exploded jet plane (GI Joe). The drama was real, and for a kid of thirteen, entirely believable. I have the greatest memories of running around the back yard pretending to be fighting of the zendradi in my mech fighter.
I still have my little model of the SDF-1 in my basement somewhere... maybe I should pull it out and mount it above the fireplace... hmmm. I don't think my wife would approve.
They had better be glad they can get off with these settlements instead of fighting it. It's not bullying because they are not innocent.
Says who? You? Because you read in/. that she was sharing 1100 illegal copyrighted files? I'm sure you are intimitaly familiar with the case right? You've analyzed all of the facts, and come to a just and fair conclusion?
No, you haven't. You have drawn your conclusion too soon and unfairly, which is the problem with far, far too many people it seems. The original argument was that the tactica that the RIAA are using is unfair because it doesn't afford the common person to afford to defend themselves. You come right out and say fuck-em, they're guilty anyway, right? That's exactly what the RIAA is trying to accomplish, the assimilation of the minds of the weak. But what if she's not guilty? What if there are circumstances that you are not aware of, that would certainly come out in trial? What then? Should this 15 year-old's parents pay the 5-10 thousand dollars to defend her in court, or just pay the $3,500 fine?
It's a lose-lose situation for the family being sued, and the lesser loss is to just pay the $3,500. The RIAA knows this, and since they have millions in the legal coffer they can run around suing everyone in sight. I would say, giving your example, that the RIAA is exactly like the EEOC - extorting smaller and less wealthy entities. That is what US civil law is all about, the survival of the wealthy and powerful.
You see, the legal system should be about determining justice, and defending the innocent. Instead it has become a tool to abuse, and opress.
If this little girl is indeed guilty, then the law being the law, she should have to pay the fine. As much as I disagree with this specific law (which if this were a just and fair world would never have been enacted), that is the way it is. However, if she is not guilty... well, we'll never know that will we?
I do vehemently disagree with the RIAA tactics though. I think that if the music companies could manage to pull their head out of their asses, they would realize that the RIAA is doing more to damage their business than to help it. I would hope that the music execs start to realize this, pull out the books, and look at the bottom line. Their legal bulldog is not just protecting their business interests anymore, it is beginning to eat up and shit all over their own assets.
I may give them a bit too much credit though... Oh well, here's to dreaming of times when people in power are more than just shit-for-brain pimp-their-mom paranoid selfish assholes.
I am now FIRMLY convinced that JavaScript may well be the MOST important asset that we have in opposing anyone's efforts to take over, control, or "proprietize" the web, as Microsoft and Macromedia are rolling ahead to do, with.NET and the new Flash.
In some ways I agree with you. However, with all of the problems that Javascript has caused and can potentially cause, I am very firmly opposed to letting it run rampant in my browser.
Javascript is an excellent scripting language, and can be quite powerful. Applications that need scripting support, and web-based applications are the best targets for such a language. Unfortunately shady advertisers, and pr0n sites that want to GET IN YOUR FACE are also using it to pop-up, and pop-under windows to their sites. This is a truly despicable use of such a cool technology. Fortunately there are some good browsers being developed that limit the harmful effects of Javascript (Mozilla, Opera, etc) by eliminating pop-up/pop-under windows and other nasty things.
Now that some people want to use Javascript to control mouse gestures, I hope that the browser developers will also give us the option do disable that feature as well. There are some legitimate uses for such behavior, like I said above web applications are becoming more common, and may wish to add mouse gestures to control specific features in the application... but when a slimy advertiser wants to do something tricky with it to annoy me, that's when I'd like to turn it off.
It seems that this kind of activity is common with Apple, let the developers write their own stuff then STEAL IT! Let's just say that I'm not chomping at the bit to work there.
I suppose that under extreme situations and financial difficulties I would consider it - I'm not that hardcore - but most people that are qualified to work at Apple are probably more than qualified to work almost anywhere else.
Given their track record, do they expect that their employees will be happy to go out and write more software for the Mac? This is the kind of stupidity that Apple has always suffered from... make a cool computer, but go out of your way to prevent anyone from doing anything with it. IT'S OURS DAMMIT! HANDS OFF! Meanwhile Micro$oft has made billions by attracting developers to their platform. How do they not understand that it's all about the apps?
A. More apps = more sales.
B. More sales = more money.
C. Stealing shareware = less apps.
Slashdot Mirror
Granted a lot of those people were wannabe hacks that didn't know shit about computers, but got a job anyway because basically *anyone* could get a job back then, but some of us knew which direction was up at least - having been programming computers since the 80's - and just wanted to bypass the stupid educational system that was taking WAY too friggin long to finish. Many of these people (myself included) decided after the bust to go back and get that elusive degree, only to find out recently that it ain't going to do a damn bit of good so why bother?
Many jobs in IT today do stipulate that the potential employee have a college degree with X number of years experience, but most of those (and many others) will accept "equivalent experience" as a substitute for the degree. The only place I can see this being an issue is for government contracting (you are on a lower pay scale w/o a degree), and possibly places like MS, IBM, and Sun... but who the fuck wants to work there anyway?
People in my position could go back and finish a degree, and then possibly get an advanced degree, but I'm getting older and starting to burn out writing code for someone else. In the next few years I will be starting up a business or two anyway and I doubt that a CS degree will help with that.
Anyway, I guess that I would like to have that piece of paper that says I actually finished the program, but realistically thinking it just isn't worth my time anymore.
Pay for his airfare, let him sleep on your couch, and you still come out ahead. He gets a free vacation, and you save money on your laptop.
Going home he can just tell customs that the laptop was broken, or stolen, or that he got pissed off and hit the damn thing with a hammer... It's not going to matter really, I mean how many times do people actually want your laptop serial #, and even if they get it (traveling, etc) they're not going to run a national laptop serial # search for every passenger with a laptop.
If any researchers are reading this post, I have a cool idea that I'd like to see in the future... part of it came from a Popular Science a few months ago:
Instead of using a gasoline powered engine to provide the energy, there should be research into how to transfer energy from the human body. I mean, who wouldn't love to eat high sugar/carbohydrate foods all day to power their exoskeleton?
That kind of technology could be used for a multitude of other things as well.
Take it to the next level. Since I'm your friend, would you please lend me $5,000? Can I come stay at your house for a few months? Can I borrow your credit card to go buy some computer stuff? I promise, I'll stick to a limit you set. No? Why? I thought we were friends?
Aw, come on! Man this lame group of posts has been sitting here for more than long enough for someone to come up with an intelligent reply for me to mod up... but no, I'll have to do it myself it seems.
Ok, first of all, everyone in this section who has posted with some stupid ass comment like "ok, you're all my friends, give me 500 bucks" or like the parent who says "give me your credit card, we're friends right?" in response to the grandparent who said that he shares files with all of his friends (ie. everyone) has really got to get some psychological help to undo all of the brainwashing they have subjected themselves to. That, or just get a fucking clue.
Giving or lending people money implies that I am without that money until (if) the borrower gives it back. Sharing bits does not come with that implication, I am free to continue to use it as long as I wish.
I am against copyright infringement, but I do absofuckinglutely hate it when stupid people try to spew out their uninformed and nonsensical philosophies without really thinking about the issue.
Wake up people! Open your eyes and make that little brain think!
That's the beauty of the plan...
To make the transition now from gasoline to hydrogen not only improves emissions from vehicles, but creates a powerful demand for more hydrogen. The process that extracts hydrogen from refined oils doesn't have to release the pollutants into the atmosphere, I'm sure that it could be used elsewhere.
Besides, once the infrastructure is built, there are several alternatives to getting oil from the ground.
Had the Germany not attacked the USSR, the Soviets would have happily split Poland with Germany, and annexed/invaded their Eastern European neighbors; they certainly wouldn't have come to the defense of Britain
I have to agree with much of your post, but I differ in opinion with a few of the items you list. First, if Germany hadn't attacked the USSR, the USSR would have invaded Europe. All of it. The war would have been fought on different lands, but would have been fought nonetheless.
Had the British negotiated a surrender with Germany instead of being the lone holdout against Germany, most of Europe would today speak German
I don't think that everyone would have had to learn German... Hitler was more interested in preserving the European culture (albeit the anti-jewish European culture), but all the nations that he conquered kept their own language and culture.
If the Germans had not placed Hitler in power, if the Germans had not sustained him in power, if Hitler had not plunged Europe into a war of conquest and genocide, then not a single Allied bomb would have ever fallen on German territory.
Nope, you're right. The entire European continent would have been overrun by Stalin's communist armies.
Now that would be an interesting situation, wouldn't it?
This isn't revisionist history either.. I saw this on the History Channel.
Even over 60 years on parts of the history of the Second World War are parts of myth pushed by vocal and powerful contempoary political groups.
I've been noticing more and more of this recently in my studies of WWII, and it is really disturbing.
This is even more disturbing to me. The deeper I try to research specific topics that aren't really even that "hot" on the "popular dogma" scale I run into a lot of resistance. It is like there is someone at the bottom of all of this knowledge who is terrified of anyone finding out what really happened.
Strange indeed.
Soon enough, the French stopped firing, and as punishment Germany then took over all of France, hence ending the Vichy treaty.
I've always thought that this was an interesting fact of WWII, although I don't think that it was as much "punishment" as you say, but just generally looking out for their own interests.
You see, Germany feared an allied attack on their western border from the British whom they'd already expelled from the European continent. The treaty with the Vichy government was, I think, an attempt by Germany to have allies to help protect against the British invasion without sacrificing a lot of German troops that could then fight against the Russians (Germany's arch rival). I think that when the Vichies stopped protecting the border Germany had to send in some armies to secure the European seaboard. IMHO, I don't think that Germany cared much about France, or wanted to really "own" it as many people think... I think that their real goal was Russia, except that all of these other countries kept getting in his way, and he had to invade France to keep everyone else out until the Russia campaign was over.
I also think it's a bit interesting how most French people didn't mind the Germans taking over. It provided them with a stable government (which they hadn't had for a long time), and their lives were generally better with them there... that is until the Allies landed and bombed the hell out of the entire European continent. I think that must have sucked.
Wow, deja-vu. I am in almost the exact same situation, minus the drugs.
I have suffered from mild Tourette's Syndrome and ADHD my whole life, and it really affected me both positively and negatively as a child. I found that the ticks were somewhat embarrassing, so I started trying to control them mentally. It took a little while, but I was able to control them eventually. I wish that I'd been able to go through the neural feedback therapy also, I think it would have saved me a lot of mental anguish.
As for the ADHD, it was quite an issue for me. I skipped the first grade because the teachers saw that I was a pretty bright kid, but then they held me back a year because I couldn't concentrate on some of the subjects... I did find however, that after being able to (mostly) master the Tourette's symptoms I was better able to control my ADHD symptoms as well. It was (and still is) very difficult to maintain this control, but I am doing it somewhat successfully.
Do I wish that I'd taken drugs? Not really. From what I read now, it would probably have helped my attention problems, but exacerbated the Tourette's. It would also have prevented me from experiencing all of the positive effects of ADHD, like the random abundant creativeness that helped me excel in arts and writing, and the overwhelming passions I experience at times for wanting to know how things work and why that helped me excel in science, history, and maths.
To be honest, I really enjoy being the way that I am. I just could not imagine taking a drug that would take it all away. I just couldn't tolerate it.
So how did my parents keep sane? I played sports. Lots of them. Year round. Anything and everything under the sun. It helped me also in numerous ways: by keeping me healthy and active which used up all of my extra energy, and by teaching me about life, struggles, competition, and friendship. Man, I really enjoyed my childhood.
I think that the Neural Feedback Therapy that the parent mentioned is probably one of the best treatments available for any kid who has ADHD, Tourette's, or anything else like it. I'm sure it would have saved me years of struggling and effort in trying to replicate the results myself. And the upside of such therapy is that it doesn't rob you of the wonderful benefits of being ADHD!
I tend to agree on some levels with the parent poster, but I do feel strongly that other solutions should be researched.
I am realizing now as an adult that I exhibited just about every symptom of ADHD as a child, and by reading many of the posts in this forum I now have a better understanding of how other people have dealt with the issues of childhood ADHD.
I constantly felt bored with most subjects, and really wanted a challenge. I was allowed to skip the 1st grade because the teachers at the time realized what was going on. The problem was that two years later I was held back a grade because of the symptoms of ADHD. It is frustrating to have this type of mental feature, as most of the material was too easy, and I wanted to learn "new and cool" stuff. The problem was that I really couldn't control what was "new and cool"... My mind decided without my help, thus I would excel at some things, and lose concentration on others.
The problem nowadays is that we have drugs like Ritalin (et al) that allow the kid to concentrate, but don't allow the kid to express the other wonderful features of ADHD, the good ones. I think that the techniques mentioned by the thread owner might actually be a good thing, as it would help the child to control the ADHD instead of just suppressing it.
Let me explain why:
My case is a bit different from many others, as in addition to the concentration problems, I had (still have) strange mental and physical compulsions that I've never had diagnosed. It causes me to have strange ticks and to make strange sounds occasionally. As I've grown older I've learned to control these weird impulses so that they are now unnoticeable.
I find that these impulses become most apparent when my mind is most active, when I am excited about something, or when I am around other people with the same 'disorder'. However, by excercising my mental muscles, I am able to overcome the (extremely) strong impulses to twitch, to make a whistling sound, etc... It still comes out sometimes, but it is much, much less noticeable and I do not feel at all uncomfortable going to any type of social encounter.
Now I've also found that many of the mental tricks I employ to control these 'impulses' also work for the symptoms of ADHD. I am now returning to college studying advanced mathematics and physics, and can easily sit through lectures, and do all of my homework. It is tough sometimes, especially when I'm physically tired (sleep is SO important!), but I do it.
I think that if more people were able to 'control' their symptoms by mental excertion or other therapies and could regulate the disorder themselves without the need for drugs, then these kids would be able to have the best of both worlds, the concentration ability, and the creativeness and intellect of their overactive minds.
I don't know how many other people clicked this link, but I was surprised at how fast it loaded! BAM! Lightning quick.
Good job.
This doesn't do tagging, but I'd love to see someone hack support for it in the shell... any takers?
Here you go: mkaudiocd.sh
hmmmm.... interesting.
So in other words, the taxpayers should have a redundant, government run version of an already existing service, which is run by an evil company who has coordination and resources?
Yep.
Label me whatever you choose, but I think that this is a good idea. I'll explain why:
Qwest is bad, we all know that. Their infrastructure is decades old, and cannot handle the type of dataflow that the Utopia fiber optic lines can. Even if it could, they would likely charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars per customer per month for the connection. They are just a private company trying to reap the greatest profits. There is no problem with that, except that they are a monopoly. When monopolies exist, they are always a problem and a threat to capitalism for that market. That is why the US government has instituted various anti-trust measures to limit monopoly power. In the case of Qwest (and several other telecoms) this hasn't happened fast enough IMO and the entire telecom industry is becoming stagnant.
I would like to see many of the up-and-coming technologies have a chance to prove themselves in the same playing field as the big dogs. There have been some amazing inventions/innovations in the past few years, but they just don't have the resources to compete with the monopoly telecoms that control the nation's information infrastructure.
I'll shorten this by just saying that I am a believer in capitalism, but that I distrust and dislike monopolies in any form. If liking this Utopia project makes me a socialist, well fuck it, maybe I'm a bit of that too. I really don't think that the government is going to play a big role in the services part of the project however, I think they're just going to lease the lines to whoever wants access.
This is the part that I like. Qwest no longer has control, and has to compete just like everyone else - based on quality, reliability, and price. That, and the fact that I'll be able to get a helluva fat bidirectional pipe going into my house! Who could be against that?
Uh, didn't Qwest already build an infrastructure...? It is based on copper phone lines going to every house in the state.
I think that the Utopia project is the best thing that Utah has going for it. Seriously. The taxpayers not only get one of the best information infrastructures in the nation, but they also have the liberating privilege of choosing between many different companies' services.
Yes, Qwest already has an infrastructure, but it holds onto it with an iron fist. No competition, no choice, no opportunity for emerging companies to compete. With the control of this infrastructure in the cities' hands they can open it up for several different companies to lease. That makes it better for everyone... everyone that is except Qwest. Buahaaaahaahaaa!
A recent Arbitron (radio station ratings) study in Toronto showed...
Radio station ratings services like Arbitron use the above facts...
Arbitron found that, on one day in Toronto...
Arbitron studies presuppose that your station's listeners...
Ok, first off... Arbitron sucks. They are notoriously inaccurate, and their "studies" are nothing more than general half-educated guesses, or data collected from people that they have specifically targeted and paid off to take their surveys.
I have no issue with who is better, or who can piss further: Canadians, or Americans. Frankly I don't give a shit, but I do know that Arbitron is a lame duck.
People using Mac OS X or Linux don't call their OS "Windows" like MS customers do.
But they do refer to their window managers and GUIs by that "generic" term. There are many people that don't disassociate their GUI OS interface from the underlying OS, hence XWindows is really just a part of the operating system to them.
For Us, The Living, Robert A. Heinlein's first novel, ... in fact, it works best as what it is, the last piece of Heinlein's work to be published, and it should almost certainly be one of the last pieces someone starting to read Heinlein should attempt.
Is this just a mis-type, or is his first novel the last one to be published...?
I wholeheartedly agree. I happened to land on C-SPAN while channel surfing in the early morning a few weeks ago when the British Parliament was having some kind of open debate where the representatives (?) all got to stand up and ask the Prime Minister some shockingly direct questions and demand answers. It was totally fucking amazing!
I must say that Mr. Blair is very quick, and was able to respond to everything with answers and logic that was actually relevant to the question... we don't get a lot of that here in the US.
The whole time I kept thinking "Shit, how come we don't have this in the US?!"
It just seems to me looking in from the outside that your political system is one big tv show. Every bill we hear about is the Grady bill or the Patriot Act or some other catchy name. Every politician has some stupid sound byte on tv and then a talking head tells you what to think. I don't know it just seems so plastic compared to our system.
Plastic is very descriptive of the soundbytes and fakeness of today's US politics. It seems that throughout history the nations that get too corrupt find some way to end up in a revolution, or are conquered, or something... I don't see that happening anytime soon here, but it is interesting to think about where this type of corrupt politics is taking our nation...
that BMW is going this route. I've been looking around recently at new cars, including the BMW 6 and 7 series. I'm planning to buy sometime this spring, but I guess I'll be looking more closely at the Lexus LS and Mercedes S series models.
Robotech.. ah, nostalgia! Man, I'd wake up at 5:00 am every morning and run downstairs to catch the show before getting on the bus to junior high school. It was the get-me-up juice in my life before I started drinking coffee.
That show I think really started the Anime revolution here in America. I mean, they actually SHOWED people getting killed, rather than parachuting out of an already exploded jet plane (GI Joe). The drama was real, and for a kid of thirteen, entirely believable. I have the greatest memories of running around the back yard pretending to be fighting of the zendradi in my mech fighter.
I still have my little model of the SDF-1 in my basement somewhere... maybe I should pull it out and mount it above the fireplace... hmmm. I don't think my wife would approve.
They had better be glad they can get off with these settlements instead of fighting it. It's not bullying because they are not innocent.
Says who? You? Because you read in /. that she was sharing 1100 illegal copyrighted files? I'm sure you are intimitaly familiar with the case right? You've analyzed all of the facts, and come to a just and fair conclusion?
No, you haven't. You have drawn your conclusion too soon and unfairly, which is the problem with far, far too many people it seems. The original argument was that the tactica that the RIAA are using is unfair because it doesn't afford the common person to afford to defend themselves. You come right out and say fuck-em, they're guilty anyway, right? That's exactly what the RIAA is trying to accomplish, the assimilation of the minds of the weak. But what if she's not guilty? What if there are circumstances that you are not aware of, that would certainly come out in trial? What then? Should this 15 year-old's parents pay the 5-10 thousand dollars to defend her in court, or just pay the $3,500 fine?
It's a lose-lose situation for the family being sued, and the lesser loss is to just pay the $3,500. The RIAA knows this, and since they have millions in the legal coffer they can run around suing everyone in sight. I would say, giving your example, that the RIAA is exactly like the EEOC - extorting smaller and less wealthy entities. That is what US civil law is all about, the survival of the wealthy and powerful.
You see, the legal system should be about determining justice, and defending the innocent. Instead it has become a tool to abuse, and opress.
If this little girl is indeed guilty, then the law being the law, she should have to pay the fine. As much as I disagree with this specific law (which if this were a just and fair world would never have been enacted), that is the way it is. However, if she is not guilty... well, we'll never know that will we?
I do vehemently disagree with the RIAA tactics though. I think that if the music companies could manage to pull their head out of their asses, they would realize that the RIAA is doing more to damage their business than to help it. I would hope that the music execs start to realize this, pull out the books, and look at the bottom line. Their legal bulldog is not just protecting their business interests anymore, it is beginning to eat up and shit all over their own assets.
I may give them a bit too much credit though... Oh well, here's to dreaming of times when people in power are more than just shit-for-brain pimp-their-mom paranoid selfish assholes.
I am now FIRMLY convinced that JavaScript may well be the MOST important asset that we have in opposing anyone's efforts to take over, control, or "proprietize" the web, as Microsoft and Macromedia are rolling ahead to do, with .NET and the new Flash.
In some ways I agree with you. However, with all of the problems that Javascript has caused and can potentially cause, I am very firmly opposed to letting it run rampant in my browser.
Javascript is an excellent scripting language, and can be quite powerful. Applications that need scripting support, and web-based applications are the best targets for such a language. Unfortunately shady advertisers, and pr0n sites that want to GET IN YOUR FACE are also using it to pop-up, and pop-under windows to their sites. This is a truly despicable use of such a cool technology. Fortunately there are some good browsers being developed that limit the harmful effects of Javascript (Mozilla, Opera, etc) by eliminating pop-up/pop-under windows and other nasty things.
Now that some people want to use Javascript to control mouse gestures, I hope that the browser developers will also give us the option do disable that feature as well. There are some legitimate uses for such behavior, like I said above web applications are becoming more common, and may wish to add mouse gestures to control specific features in the application... but when a slimy advertiser wants to do something tricky with it to annoy me, that's when I'd like to turn it off.
It seems that this kind of activity is common with Apple, let the developers write their own stuff then STEAL IT! Let's just say that I'm not chomping at the bit to work there.
I suppose that under extreme situations and financial difficulties I would consider it - I'm not that hardcore - but most people that are qualified to work at Apple are probably more than qualified to work almost anywhere else.
Given their track record, do they expect that their employees will be happy to go out and write more software for the Mac? This is the kind of stupidity that Apple has always suffered from... make a cool computer, but go out of your way to prevent anyone from doing anything with it. IT'S OURS DAMMIT! HANDS OFF! Meanwhile Micro$oft has made billions by attracting developers to their platform. How do they not understand that it's all about the apps?
A. More apps = more sales.
B. More sales = more money.
C. Stealing shareware = less apps.
How complicated is it?