Other than using computers, to learn about how to use them (ironic no?), reference purposes (which I could otherwise get at a library) and maybe language learning (its helping me learn Japanese) what other kind of applications have you found for adults for computer-based learning. Most focuses, IMO, on computer-based skill aquirement (Internet, Word, Excel) etc. So far, the only real success I've seen is teaching young kids math and reading.
Are we in need of a killer-app for computer based learning?
I have to ask. Assuming Firefox does digitally sign the browser, waht prevents someone from faking the signature. Obviously, someone co-signs it using a crypto key like Verisign or other party. OTOH, what prevents anyone from making a dummy signature. Someone will think "hey, its signed" so it must be good.
For many non-crypto experts (like me) looking at the signatures under the keylock doesn't tell me, or reassure me much when I'm shopping or banking.
Also, what prevents a dummy signautre from installing software on IE. "Trusted computing" (LOL, nice oxymoron!!!) is going to play a role in this in the future. Seems, like it doesn't require *ANY* signature to date. You get tons of spyware.
At least Firefox blocks most pop-ups and software install by default. I have 0 spyware just by using Firefox. 2 years now.
I've had an opposite experience to yours. When looking for a job last year, I forwarded my resume in PDF format to many different companies: high-tech, government, employment agencies, other businesses.
Several HR people called and said "Sorry, I can't read your resume in that format. Please forward it as a Microsoft Word document." (Yes, they specifically "required" Microsoft Word. Having Word on my computer, I obliged. I was lucky they actually called. Several never called (I wonder if they were able to "read" it). The problem of course is what if you save the document in OO and don't have Word? How can you be sure it will be formatted properly?
Funny thing to me is that since (AFAIK), there are no viruses for PDF files. With the risk of macro viruses in Word, I would have thought PDF more widely accepted - at least for security reasons.
Why can't the music labels get this right? Simply tranfserring music from CD to a computer digital format (MP3, OGG, etc.) is not equivocally piracy.
I have a CD collection of over 250 CDs. I love music and have paid for every single CD in my collection. I prob have more music then I know what to do with. I trasfer my music to my MiniDisc (which admittedly has tough restrictions) to listen to music all the time.
I'd like to see the music executive's music collection. They prob have MP3s on their computer. They prob also taped TV shows at home w/o the commercials.
Either change this label on digital formats and stop the DRM on CD's or I swear I will stop buying major-label CD's. (There are still some good bands). Get it??????
No matter how good the OSS drivers get, they will never be up to par with Nvidia or ATI's offering because of the closed source nature of the work they do.
Is X.org going to make it easier to install the binary drivers for Linux? I used to have an Nvidia card (TNT 2) and after getting a Radeon 9500, I found that while its more work (I grew frustrated and never bothered to install ATI's) they are longer and more arduous of a process than Windows (and prob MAC) binary drivers.
I'm not a Linux noob but I don't like to spend 20 or 30 minutes to install video drivers (when its click, Yes, Yes, Install) with Windows. Is this process going to be easier in the future? My main quibbles with adopting Linux completely are drivers, kernel compilation not being very straitforward (2.2 was okay... 2.4 and 2.6 are getting to many options) and applications. The video driver thing isn't helping.
First, this is a really cool idea. I guess educators are scared of integrating business applications into the public education system. Any chance teens/kids get to "see" what businesses are doing, engineers are building, what their careers demand, I think is a great learning opportunity and might inspire a new generation.
As a upper year university student who used to be in a science program and instead chose a liberal arts degree, I have this advice:
Try and focus at least some of your program on advising students how "hard" post-secondary science educations are. They aren't easy, nor are most university diplomas. Your presentation might have a lot of "wow" appeal with robots, but I think there should be some responsibility - which educators (and some parents) might not know about - which are the demands studying and university take on you. The texts and teachers were heavy with the "wow's" of science in HS; when in university the only "wow" you get is "This is hard.... and taking a lot of my time."
There's nothing more rewarding then looking at a problem for a long time and you suddenly "get it". Trust me.
This is not meant to discourage. Rather, I hope you might get to kick a drive in others to persist in their studies at university. Things seem so "easy" when you're out on your own.
Not only that but the search engines - particularly the ones in Social Science - are very slow, hard to search, not indexed properly and crash frequently (as always, when I most need it). MedLine, IMO, is probably *the* best one there. I wish Google would replace some of those search engines with their own technology.
I concur. Google should team up with Academic publishers to increase the quality and quantity of the searchable information. And maybe if there is a bit of competition, the other databases will also improve.
I think it brings up an important point: replacing teachers with computers/technology even partially distances students with the teachers. This will come to haunt you in: class and teacher evaluations as well recommendations for school when even the smallest thing goes wrong -- the "teacher" is always to blame not the computer.
My university, or at least the program that I'm enrolled in (not Comp Sci) uses computers somewhat minimally. I like it that way.
If anything, encourage profs to upload course material/documents to private WWW sites and start up a form, blog or Wiki or similar. That would be best.
Seems, right or wrong, theres a lot of new Apple hardware leaks. I believe this is an unlikely product for Apple since the iPod is really a high-margin product which Apple tends to focus on. For the budget minded consumer, there are already too many competitiors.
If this "leak" is actually from Apple, I believe executives have planted fake information to small groups of people within the company. People only need to know what they need to to do their job. This way when something gets leaked its easy to find out who did it and fire them.
Do not try this (using laser pointers that is... ) with the Russian "variety" of Roulette. While its sure to improve your aim and your chances of "winning" you might find yourself losing out on life a bit!
Aprart from one or two television shows... I can do w/o television.
Its failing to entertain me because: 1) The good sitcoms (or at least ones which appeal to me) like Seinfeld seem to be gone. 2) There is too much "focus" on reality television and game shows. 3) Advertising is driving me crazy 4) The news is too skewed and their opinions are a discredit to my education (I actually watch the Daily Show instead of CNN to catch up on international news). 5) I'd rather read, exercise, go out or watch a movie than watch TV.
Some TV executive is going to have to come up with a spectacular new show to get me to watch.
Can you provide some example of this? I'm finding my organization of multiple folders quite hard to organize mentally. I'm doing increasinly larger projects (at school and privately) which will need more organization. Thanks!
I have a P3 800 with 640 MB RAM and a Radeon 9600 XT. HL2 plays very well at 1024 x 768 and medium details and 2x AA.
I don't know why everyone needs to play this at 1280 x 1024 @ 8 xAA and uber-high detail -- you still play the same game. Only you've paid a couple grand more than I have to do it.
I have an objection to the movie rental costs. Now it might not be a lot of money here but I definately rent a lot less movies because of it.
I live in Ontario, Canada. When I moved here several years ago the cost of movie rentals has stayed about the same: $5.50. It almost doesn't matter what video store you go to its always the same. In Atlantic Canada where I lived previously- or at least Halifax - the movie rentals were $1.99 for the longest time. Same big chain - and similar community size (large suburban area). The stores renting the videos didn't seem deprived.
Is there some price fixing going on here? Movie theater tickets - I belive - Canada wide are around $10 - $12. How much does it cost where you live?
I dunno if I so much feel ripped off, again its not a lot of money - but know the cost difference its almost absurd. I definately rent less videos as a result.
Books, IMO, provide much longer entertainment value, for less money than a movie - and usually take more time to produce. Books rule!
File search programs are handy if you *rougly* know the name of the file or what is stored in the file.
I think someone should re-think the way computer information is organized in the first place. Traditionally, we store every thing in Folders and Subfolders. There should be a better way to do this - or at least make it more convienient to browse multiple subfolders in Windows so as not to need programs to search for files.
Its over-kill to have a program on the desktop to search data on the web when all one has to do is open up a web browser to a search engine.
--- Your potential solution is osmosis theory (you know, sleep on the book and "absorb" the information). If there are any links to academic material proving its existance... (Harvard Medical Journal and such) would be appreciated!
For whomever marked me a troll, as I've suddenly gone from 4+ funny to 2+ funny....
I'm sensitive to the issues/sufferers of diabetes: a family member and some friends have it. I was making a sarcastic remark, among other reasons, that animals such as mice are "cured" of disease even though we introduce it in their speicies (genetic manipulation, diet change) and we value these cures for humans even though we may chose to euthanise our pets.
I will be calling Dr Faustman's office tommorow for more information and a follow up appointment. Even if it means taking a trip to Harvard from Canada.
My pet mouse needs the cure desparately.
I can think of one way to get really rich of this idea.....
Sell air plane fuel? Install one of these puppies near an airport. Ideally a faily busy one like LAX or O'Hare. Turn on the machine. As it takes more fuel for the planes to take off.... profit!!!
Ok, I'm repeating Ballmer. But where are the droves of developers needed to port the games?
If all games were made with a single graphics engine - say OpenGL - Macs already have fast video cards to run the games. But whereas on a console you know that everyone who's bought a console will buy a game, on the PC and the Mac those numbers are hard to tell. Past sales of games might give some indication.
Given there's a small market share, but if Apple is a software house in disguise... why not open up their own cross-platform game house? Afterall, they've ported iTunes which has been highly successful.
I tend to agree with the parent post. (I must admit before continuing, I've never fully swichted to Linux from Windows. And I'm not a programmer. Some reasons follow:)
Most of the desktop Linux stuff is ready. As soon as I pop in a CD to install Linux the:
1) Installation on most distros is pretty staight forward. For most of the distros (and as an aside at least FreeBSD too) the most difficult/confusing part of the install is partitioning the drive. MS isn't all there too. 2) 1st biggest problem is getting all the hardware to work. I still rely on whatever work distros did to get printing running out of the box. I have an HP 5L. Its an older, simple (no color) printer... couldn't this be made a bit easier? IMO CUPS seems to have added more complexity. CD-Burning is kinda confusing since its undergone a lot of changes - kernel wise. Video cards (admittedly I have a Radeon 9500... If I downgraded my card it would be a snap) but if I can't get decent video performance w/o kernel recompiling, patching X config files... yada yada... then I'm going to give up. The same applies for newer Nvidia cards though I hear its easier to install. Ditto to plug & play USB -- esp mounting my external HDD. ALSA is not fun either. 3) Look and feel. This is of course harder to explain but at the very least... cut and paste should work for all X programs. 4) Productivity apps. Some/most are there for the bulk of productivity work. OO (among others) is quickly shaping up to be a great project.
Other 'productivity' tools like SED, GREP... and shell scripts save a lot of time. And they run so much better in native Nix.
If Gnome and KDE are going to be the big desktop projects for all 'Nix distros why not work towards a level of integration and look and feel similar to Apple? I'm not advocating copying Apple. Just their level of intergration and ease of use is unparalled in the industry. This should be a goal of desktop 'Nix (for all processors!!!). Afterall, I'm sure there's a lot of techies here using Apple because its an easy, powerful Nix system.
Personally, I prefer the idea of XFCE (a light, fast desktop environment). I think a common control pannel to switch X dekstop resoultions, font configuration, handle desktop shortcuts and efault applications (yes its probably a "registry" ) should be in the works.
Slashdot Mirror
Other than using computers, to learn about how to use them (ironic no?), reference purposes (which I could otherwise get at a library) and maybe language learning (its helping me learn Japanese) what other kind of applications have you found for adults for computer-based learning. Most focuses, IMO, on computer-based skill aquirement (Internet, Word, Excel) etc. So far, the only real success I've seen is teaching young kids math and reading.
Are we in need of a killer-app for computer based learning?
I have to ask. Assuming Firefox does digitally sign the browser, waht prevents someone from faking the signature. Obviously, someone co-signs it using a crypto key like Verisign or other party. OTOH, what prevents anyone from making a dummy signature. Someone will think "hey, its signed" so it must be good.
For many non-crypto experts (like me) looking at the signatures under the keylock doesn't tell me, or reassure me much when I'm shopping or banking.
Also, what prevents a dummy signautre from installing software on IE. "Trusted computing" (LOL, nice oxymoron!!!) is going to play a role in this in the future. Seems, like it doesn't require *ANY* signature to date. You get tons of spyware.
At least Firefox blocks most pop-ups and software install by default. I have 0 spyware just by using Firefox. 2 years now.
Thanks for the info. I knew there was a virus or 2 with PDF. Not nearly as many as Word has. But interesting, nonetheless. Thanks.
I've had an opposite experience to yours. When looking for a job last year, I forwarded my resume in PDF format to many different companies: high-tech, government, employment agencies, other businesses.
Several HR people called and said "Sorry, I can't read your resume in that format. Please forward it as a Microsoft Word document." (Yes, they specifically "required" Microsoft Word. Having Word on my computer, I obliged. I was lucky they actually called. Several never called (I wonder if they were able to "read" it). The problem of course is what if you save the document in OO and don't have Word? How can you be sure it will be formatted properly?
Funny thing to me is that since (AFAIK), there are no viruses for PDF files. With the risk of macro viruses in Word, I would have thought PDF more widely accepted - at least for security reasons.
Why can't the music labels get this right? Simply tranfserring music from CD to a computer digital format (MP3, OGG, etc.) is not equivocally piracy.
I have a CD collection of over 250 CDs. I love music and have paid for every single CD in my collection. I prob have more music then I know what to do with. I trasfer my music to my MiniDisc (which admittedly has tough restrictions) to listen to music all the time.
I'd like to see the music executive's music collection. They prob have MP3s on their computer. They prob also taped TV shows at home w/o the commercials.
Either change this label on digital formats and stop the DRM on CD's or I swear I will stop buying major-label CD's. (There are still some good bands). Get it??????
No matter how good the OSS drivers get, they will never be up to par with Nvidia or ATI's offering because of the closed source nature of the work they do.
... 2.4 and 2.6 are getting to many options) and applications. The video driver thing isn't helping.
Is X.org going to make it easier to install the binary drivers for Linux? I used to have an Nvidia card (TNT 2) and after getting a Radeon 9500, I found that while its more work (I grew frustrated and never bothered to install ATI's) they are longer and more arduous of a process than Windows (and prob MAC) binary drivers.
I'm not a Linux noob but I don't like to spend 20 or 30 minutes to install video drivers (when its click, Yes, Yes, Install) with Windows. Is this process going to be easier in the future? My main quibbles with adopting Linux completely are drivers, kernel compilation not being very straitforward (2.2 was okay
And based on one of your previous posts
it looks like you're giving all your secrets away. I will be patiently awaiting your future business savvy advice on Slashdot!
Has anybody found a link to the ad? I'd like to take a look at it.
First, this is a really cool idea. I guess educators are scared of integrating business applications into the public education system. Any chance teens/kids get to "see" what businesses are doing, engineers are building, what their careers demand, I think is a great learning opportunity and might inspire a new generation.
.... and taking a lot of my time."
As a upper year university student who used to be in a science program and instead chose a liberal arts degree, I have this advice:
Try and focus at least some of your program on advising students how "hard" post-secondary science educations are. They aren't easy, nor are most university diplomas. Your presentation might have a lot of "wow" appeal with robots, but I think there should be some responsibility - which educators (and some parents) might not know about - which are the demands studying and university take on you. The texts and teachers were heavy with the "wow's" of science in HS; when in university the only "wow" you get is "This is hard
There's nothing more rewarding then looking at a problem for a long time and you suddenly "get it". Trust me.
This is not meant to discourage. Rather, I hope you might get to kick a drive in others to persist in their studies at university. Things seem so "easy" when you're out on your own.
Not only that but the search engines - particularly the ones in Social Science - are very slow, hard to search, not indexed properly and crash frequently (as always, when I most need it). MedLine, IMO, is probably *the* best one there. I wish Google would replace some of those search engines with their own technology.
I concur. Google should team up with Academic publishers to increase the quality and quantity of the searchable information. And maybe if there is a bit of competition, the other databases will also improve.
I think it brings up an important point: replacing teachers with computers/technology even partially distances students with the teachers. This will come to haunt you in: class and teacher evaluations as well recommendations for school when even the smallest thing goes wrong -- the "teacher" is always to blame not the computer.
My university, or at least the program that I'm enrolled in (not Comp Sci) uses computers somewhat minimally. I like it that way.
If anything, encourage profs to upload course material/documents to private WWW sites and start up a form, blog or Wiki or similar. That would be best.
Seems, right or wrong, theres a lot of new Apple hardware leaks. I believe this is an unlikely product for Apple since the iPod is really a high-margin product which Apple tends to focus on. For the budget minded consumer, there are already too many competitiors. If this "leak" is actually from Apple, I believe executives have planted fake information to small groups of people within the company. People only need to know what they need to to do their job. This way when something gets leaked its easy to find out who did it and fire them.
Do not try this (using laser pointers that is... ) with the Russian "variety" of Roulette. While its sure to improve your aim and your chances of "winning" you might find yourself losing out on life a bit!
Aprart from one or two television shows... I can do w/o television.
Its failing to entertain me because:
1) The good sitcoms (or at least ones which appeal to me) like Seinfeld seem to be gone.
2) There is too much "focus" on reality television and game shows.
3) Advertising is driving me crazy
4) The news is too skewed and their opinions are a discredit to my education (I actually watch the Daily Show instead of CNN to catch up on international news).
5) I'd rather read, exercise, go out or watch a movie than watch TV.
Some TV executive is going to have to come up with a spectacular new show to get me to watch.
"Before my Spidey sense is tingling!" really becomes a pickup line?
Can you provide some example of this? I'm finding my organization of multiple folders quite hard to organize mentally. I'm doing increasinly larger projects (at school and privately) which will need more organization. Thanks!
I have a P3 800 with 640 MB RAM and a Radeon 9600 XT. HL2 plays very well at 1024 x 768 and medium details and 2x AA.
I don't know why everyone needs to play this at 1280 x 1024 @ 8 xAA and uber-high detail -- you still play the same game. Only you've paid a couple grand more than I have to do it.
I have an objection to the movie rental costs. Now it might not be a lot of money here but I definately rent a lot less movies because of it.
I live in Ontario, Canada. When I moved here several years ago the cost of movie rentals has stayed about the same: $5.50. It almost doesn't matter what video store you go to its always the same. In Atlantic Canada where I lived previously- or at least Halifax - the movie rentals were $1.99 for the longest time. Same big chain - and similar community size (large suburban area). The stores renting the videos didn't seem deprived.
Is there some price fixing going on here? Movie theater tickets - I belive - Canada wide are around $10 - $12. How much does it cost where you live?
I dunno if I so much feel ripped off, again its not a lot of money - but know the cost difference its almost absurd. I definately rent less videos as a result.
Books, IMO, provide much longer entertainment value, for less money than a movie - and usually take more time to produce. Books rule!
File search programs are handy if you *rougly* know the name of the file or what is stored in the file. I think someone should re-think the way computer information is organized in the first place. Traditionally, we store every thing in Folders and Subfolders. There should be a better way to do this - or at least make it more convienient to browse multiple subfolders in Windows so as not to need programs to search for files. Its over-kill to have a program on the desktop to search data on the web when all one has to do is open up a web browser to a search engine.
Ignorance is bliss!
... (Harvard Medical Journal and such) would be appreciated!
'Nuff said.
---
Your potential solution is osmosis theory (you know, sleep on the book and "absorb" the information). If there are any links to academic material proving its existance
For whomever marked me a troll, as I've suddenly gone from 4+ funny to 2+ funny....
I'm sensitive to the issues/sufferers of diabetes: a family member and some friends have it. I was making a sarcastic remark, among other reasons, that animals such as mice are "cured" of disease even though we introduce it in their speicies (genetic manipulation, diet change) and we value these cures for humans even though we may chose to euthanise our pets.
I will be calling Dr Faustman's office tommorow for more information and a follow up appointment. Even if it means taking a trip to Harvard from Canada. My pet mouse needs the cure desparately.
I can think of one way to get really rich of this idea.....
.... profit!!!
Sell air plane fuel? Install one of these puppies near an airport. Ideally a faily busy one like LAX or O'Hare. Turn on the machine. As it takes more fuel for the planes to take off
Ok, I'm repeating Ballmer. But where are the droves of developers needed to port the games?
If all games were made with a single graphics engine - say OpenGL - Macs already have fast video cards to run the games. But whereas on a console you know that everyone who's bought a console will buy a game, on the PC and the Mac those numbers are hard to tell. Past sales of games might give some indication.
Given there's a small market share, but if Apple is a software house in disguise... why not open up their own cross-platform game house? Afterall, they've ported iTunes which has been highly successful.
I tend to agree with the parent post.
... couldn't this be made a bit easier? IMO CUPS seems to have added more complexity. ... If I downgraded my card it would be a snap) but if I can't get decent video performance w/o kernel recompiling, patching X config files... yada yada... then I'm going to give up. The same applies for newer Nvidia cards though I hear its easier to install. ... cut and paste should work for all X programs.
... and shell scripts save a lot of time. And they run so much better in native Nix.
(I must admit before continuing, I've never fully swichted to Linux from Windows. And I'm not a programmer. Some reasons follow:)
Most of the desktop Linux stuff is ready. As soon as I pop in a CD to install Linux the:
1) Installation on most distros is pretty staight forward. For most of the distros (and as an aside at least FreeBSD too) the most difficult/confusing part of the install is partitioning the drive. MS isn't all there too.
2) 1st biggest problem is getting all the hardware to work. I still rely on whatever work distros did to get printing running out of the box. I have an HP 5L. Its an older, simple (no color) printer
CD-Burning is kinda confusing since its undergone a lot of changes - kernel wise.
Video cards (admittedly I have a Radeon 9500
Ditto to plug & play USB -- esp mounting my external HDD. ALSA is not fun either.
3) Look and feel. This is of course harder to explain but at the very least
4) Productivity apps. Some/most are there for the bulk of productivity work. OO (among others) is quickly shaping up to be a great project.
Other 'productivity' tools like SED, GREP
If Gnome and KDE are going to be the big desktop projects for all 'Nix distros why not work towards a level of integration and look and feel similar to Apple? I'm not advocating copying Apple. Just their level of intergration and ease of use is unparalled in the industry. This should be a goal of desktop 'Nix (for all processors!!!). Afterall, I'm sure there's a lot of techies here using Apple because its an easy, powerful Nix system.
Personally, I prefer the idea of XFCE (a light, fast desktop environment). I think a common control pannel to switch X dekstop resoultions, font configuration, handle desktop shortcuts and efault applications (yes its probably a "registry" ) should be in the works.