I think the point isn't a slow down in development, but the worry that enterprises would consider less adequate solutions due to the threat of getting involved in litigation over Linux. Development might be equal, but did the lawsuits slow down adoption of Open Source by large scale enterprises? If so, I believe that's exactly the point the poster was making. If SCO has hindered the adoption of Linux by enterprise users, then it has reduced the flow of funds into Linux. That in turn harms Linux by helping it's competitors, indirectly reducing the amount of resources companies can sink into linux development, etc. While SCO litigation isn't a killing blow to linux in itself, it gives time for competitors to get a foot in the door, hook potential clients into long term contracts or long term commitments due to initial investments. I think the poster had an excellent point and I had not really considered this facet of the SCO attack so fully until he brought it up. Good point, poster.
IT isn't discretionary spending unless your schools are seriously hosing the budget. IT should be planned as part of the schools infrastructure. Your school will be required to have a school improvement plan or comprehensive plan and section five will address their plans for technology. It is a very detailed section encompassing several areas of technology including community outreach. I could be off on that and it could just be a Michigan thing, but I believe it is federally mandated as part of NCLB. Check it out. Your school should have it available for public review.
"Education != Vocational Training"? It's hard to believe you are referring to office applications as vocational training and endorsing computer programming as regular education. These students will have to know how to use computer and online resources just as much as they'll need to know how to go to the library and find a book. I wish students could learn programming in school, but they need to understand computer skills necessary for school work before they start spending their time programming.
I agree that other media is being ignored too much in favor of the online version. However, the schools I work at have very little material in the library. They are unlikely to find any discussions from big thinkers on current issues in print in our K-8 library. That is a shame and definitely should be corrected. However, computers do allow access to forums and media that would not otherwise be accessible to these students.
Regarding your estimates on teaching computer skills in regard to office software, I am in good position to argue against your guesswork. We have a 6 year program to teach skills with the 6th year being primarily review and independant use of those skills. Now, this could be done more quickly if we decided instead of integrating technology into the curriculum, to teach computers functions straight without tying them into the curriculum, but that would be a waste of time when these skill can be taught for the most part by applying typical core lessons to computer use. Perhaps you had a strong enough of a background that you could pick up office applications in an hour. Most of the students at my schools, while claiming they have a computer at home, do not even understand the concept of right versus left mouse clicking. Try thinking about every step you would have to learn to use an office program. Then reconsider those steps. Consider what things you had to learn before you could perform those basic functions. You must start with identifying what the computer parts are, understanding what an operating system is, differences between software types such as games, spreadsheets, word processors, you would have you understand how to use a mouse, how to type to some extent, what icons are and how they represent files, save versus save as, file systems, menu bars, tool bars, network structure to some extent if working with network drives (common place now). How about operating a web browser, what is a search engine, how do the tool bars move you around.
Unless you have a fortune invested in computers, students will be sharing computers. Unless you want to throw away math and english there is only going to be so much time in the day to cover computer skills. That makes it a long time to teach a student from the ground up. And that's exactly what must happen unless you want to split students into those that will understand computers from experience at home, and those who have had a shoddy education because they were taught assuming they would already know all the background.
And you want them to learn programming? Get in line behind the guy who wants to teach them a foreign language, we don't have time to fit that in either.
" When business leaders talk about what they need from new recruits, they hardly mention computer skills, which they find they can teach employees relatively easily on their own."
Hmmm, sure, because business leaders are down there training new employees themselves. I worked for a bank where for some reason they decided to hire a bunch of idiots. Apparently because it was such a suck ass job that no one else wanted it. Well, since after months they still could not use Windows let alone any specific application software, another employee and myself were reassigned. We got to sit in a couple of 4 person cubicles with the illiterates to "help them". This babysitting pretty much consisted of walking them through every basic function they were trying to perform.
I've seen one teacher at a school hired and she admitted to me during training that she never would have taken the job if she had been told how much of their work required the computer...and then she quit after 5 months. So not only was she not able to do the job, not only was the time of other employees wasted trying to do her work for her, not only was my time wasted trying to train her, more time was wasted because someone new needed to be trained again in 6 months. That wasted a ton of resources and certainly was a harm to the education process at this school.
I've seen this kind of behavior at every job I've worked at, employees are hired by management without a real understanding of the technical skills required for the job, and downplaying their significance for those prospective employees that are obviously intimidated by the computer. Then the new employees are thrust on the departments with no ability to function at their job because not only can they not use the software they need for the job, they don't have the skills or the background to learn the software, or often don't have the knowledge or skills to even use the operating system.
Of course, this is not just a problem with students learning how to use computers so that when they enter the workforce they will be able to handle jobs assigned to them. This is also a problem of managers not understanding the job they are hiring people for, not understanding the technical skills, and of those managers for assuming someone can learn Windows, mouse and keyboard skills, office applications, and company/task specific software in a few hours.
Michigan just finally ditched a lame laptop program by the governor. She felt that giving laptops to every 6th grader in the state would be a good idea since that is when they lose interest in school on average. Hmm, except they weren't entirely free to the school district, terribly expensive for taxpayers considering a budget deficet and education spending cuts. And she didn't think to include any teacher training, support, etc in her plan. So she was going to spend a fortune buying laptops for students with no plan to continue the program next year, and no plan for what to do with the laptops.
I love technology in the schools. But since my postion in the schools deals with technology integration into the curriculum and training of staff to use the technology in the classroom I hate these plans to throw technology into schools thinking a computer with no support, plans, or training, is going to help students.
Why should programming be taught to the average student instead of office applications such as Word? You call this a waste of computers? Rather than programming, it is more likely that these students will need office software skills when they enter the work force. NCLB states students are to be proficient at technology before leaving the 8th grade. Apparently the country expects students to be able to do independant research, web research, use an electronic card catalog, type up reports, etc, in high school without a teacher walking them through every tiny little step. I think that is a pretty good goal. I don't care if students did that 20 years ago without computers. 20 years ago they didn't have libraries' card catalogs on computers, they didn't have online encyclopedias, they didn't have online discussion forums where students could follow that conversations and discussions of our greatest minds. I have two points there, one that resources are being made available on a computer versus paper and ink as they were 20 years ago; and secondly, that resources we have never had as a culture/society/student are now ours for the taking...if we have the skills and equipment to access them.
This is very topical to what I do. My job is definitely multifaceted, but primarily my job is (supposed to be) training teachers in K-8 to effectively use technology in the classroom. Since NCLB Act makes technological proficiency mandatory by the end of 8th grade, a large part of my job is getting these teachers to teach computers to students, as the schools I work for do not have computer teachers for K-8.
We kind of break things up a bit, we differentiate teaching using computers as resources, and teaching skills on the computer. For the former, consider showing a presentation using powerpoint or videos from the web. For the latter, we have broken down the skills into categories and very narrowly defined sub-categories. We determine what skills students should learn and then we determine when they should learn it. On top of that we provide the lessons to the teachers and explain what skills the students should be expected to learn.
All of this is useless without a trained teaching staff. I work for a small schools, K-8 and about 650 students. Consider K-2 doesn't even get trained on computer skills. That means that at these schools 3-8 grade teachers, 21 of them, need training in order to provide technology instruction to 650 students. This instruction ranges from hardware components to office applications to the concepts of how technology has impacted our life.
This is a nightmare. But it is worth it. And not just because of the law requiring it. It's worth it because right now I'm working with about 60 teachers without a clue. PC's have been commonplace for at least a good decade depending on your viewpoint (I'd argue about the time AOL talked everyone into getting a computer). Computers are necessary for everything at the school including attendance and grades, even the library card catalog (only on computer), as well as lesson plans. This is only what the teachers have to deal with at the school. They are ill prepared for it and most of them barely capabable of the skills needed in a modern workforce. Computer instruction is necessary to avoid that problem for the next generation.
These kids getting out of 8th grade will be voting for your president (in the USA) in 5 years in the election after the one this next November. Will they be able to use the voting machines? Or more importantly, will they be able to understand the consequences that the technology inside the voting machines will have on their voting rights? Having basic knowledge of government, history, math, and being able to read, those are the very critical items that must be taught. However, without the skills to use that knowledge, without the resources to research, and the insight into how those resources work, then those children will become men and women whose knowledge is useless.
I had to actually RTFA on this one. I agree. This was a pretty weak case mod. The plexi and lights were kind of pretty, but other parts on the case looked lame, like they came from an old XT. I really don't see how putting a streamlined x-box into a plexi rectangle with lights on it is all that cool. Same case for a real computer might have been okay, as it would have probably been replacing a beige metal rectangle instead of streamlined black chassis. Unless that mod is going to house a commodore 64 and atari 2600 along with the x-box it's going to be lame mod of the month. No elite hacking skills, no elite case modding skills. At least if he had filled that tank with water before he dumped the x-box in he would have gotten the support of the anti-MS zealots.
Actually, this is a great deal. Geeks at academic institutions don't necessarily need phone support, or at least it's not cost effective in many cases. However, academics absolutely need the more stable Enterprise version of RH, not the new Fedora. Also, the updates and computer based support is essential for the professionals at the college to get their computers running as only they know how, but with the information they need and the updates to keep it stable. As for students, this is a solid benefit. CS majors will want a linux distro that offers support. They will benefit from an extremely cheap OS and support system. And there's still the free version for hobbyists that do not need immediate professional support, or do not need it enough to pay for it. Personally, I like playing around on linux, I don't use it that much, and I'm cheap. I'd take the free version. But if I was in one of these two situations or in a situation where I needed enterprise level support I would jump at one of these deals from RH.
This is great news as this addresses some very angry complaints in the Interview section that the academics had for RH. Goes to show that a strong community of professions with valid concerns and good suggestions can make a significant impact on businesses.
Thank you. I didn't even get an update that it had been modded "Troll". Topic is spammers who are using windows messenger to harrass and extort money and how some of them got busted. I commented on the same thing happening to me and how I dealt with my spammer and I get trolled? WTF, I think I must have pissed someone off.
I was tempted to do something "drastic" when I got a spam like this one time. Stupid bastard had spammed through windows messenger service. It was extortion. He basically was telling people that in order to get him to stop harrassing them with pop-ups that they would have to go to his site and buy some web security software. Norton I think. I checked into it and Mr Dumbass had registered his domain with real info...including home address and phone #. I forwarded the information to Symantic that some douche bag was giving them a bad rep by associating them with extortion. Then I emailed Mr Dumbass that I had his home address and info and would be forwarding it to his local authorities so they could charge him with extortion. I also told him that he had entered my system with non-approved system resources and as such he was committing computer related hacking activities. He replied back that the intent of windows messenger was that lame ass spammers like him could spam people. I harrassed him a little bit, but basically, I was just making idle threats. I doubt his local authorities would give a fuck. The feds certainly wouldn't care, even though it was a interstate related extortion scheme. I ought to look up his info. I could post it here so we could all give him a call and tell him what a punk ass bitch he is.
Amazing! You still clearly don't grasp that it is could be beneficial to designing traffic systems to use IR or some other similar method to track vehicles approaching a light. Instead of recognizing your impulsive and insulting post, you instead try to defend your poorly reasoned argument by arguing that no one mentioned designing the system to to accomadate emergency vehicles. Since your arguments don't involve a security system preventing one legged chimps with IR transmitters strapped to their backs from interfering with the system, may I also assume you are opposed to a system that would not allow for one legged chimp IR monkeys? The point you picked on did not say anything about interfering with existing traffic, but merely commented on an improved system that could use IR transmitters to track vehicles and improve traffic conditions. Pay attention to the intention of posters instead of using as an excuse to troll. You'd get more respect that way than instead of insulting people with lines like "If you want to think stupid things, go ahead, but don't encourage your fellow idiots to do something that could kill innocent people. "
Great points. I think the best point is, and my biggest problem is, these guys just can't handle the vehicle. It's not just that it's bigger. It's heavier. It's harder to see out. And it's often more insulated from the road, the driver is less in touch with his surroundings. An example of not being able to handle the vehicle. I was at the store today. I waited several minutes while an old woman tried to back her avalanche out of the parking space. She clearly had no skills to handle that large of a vehicle. She couldn't see out well. And there is nothing that old lady needed an Avalanche for. An example of being out of touch? I was making a 2 hour expressway road trip. Mostly 2 lane highways. I was constantly getting stuck behind vehicles. I started noticing that 95% of them were SUVs. Well, I started watching. Most of those guys in the SUVs were on the phone, chatting with whoever, completely oblivious to the world around them. It is more difficult to stay in touch in an SUV. You are further from the road, other drivers, less sounds, better suspension, etc. I have a friend with a giant truck. He needs it. He hauls horses and does just about anything else that you can think of the regular joe manly man doing. He does it all. But he's also the best driver I've ever known. He knows how to handle the vehicle he bought. He took special care to make sure mirrors were covering his blind spots. He even added extra ones. Most drivers I've seen don't take those precautions or get any extra training for the larger vehicle they've decided to drive.
I would love to see a non-OCD marketed MMORPG. I would like to play some of those out there, but I had to give up on Everquest pretty quickly as I realized that I didn't have 4 hours at a time to devote to the game that I would need to advance.
You still don't get it do you? This could also be a great technology for improving the situation with the timing of lights as well as emergency vehicle situations. But instead you have to insult others' intelligence while you spout off on topics you clearly haven't taken the time to grasp. Do you need someone to draw you a chart?
With sophisticated modeling software we could have smart intersections that detected the need to switch the lights based on the volume of traffic. This would be even more useful if used in a broader concept.
If people all day long approached the intersection and all had IR transmitters....That's a hell of a lot of extremely precise data that could be used to design quality efficient traffic systems for any size city.
It would help prevent situations like the guy who runs a red at 3AM because the traffic system set the opposing traffic to have a 5 minute green...with no traffic because it's 3AM. It would enable coordinators to implement a well designed light timing system to deter speeders by providing no benefit to speeding.
This was an excellent comment that you failed to grasp and posted a ridiculous reply to.
I think the point this guy is missing is the games are designed for exactly the reasons he does not like. They are designed to hook OCDs into a subscription based model. They don't need to get the best elite players. They don't need to get grandma or Billy down the street. They only need to get the OCDs hooked and keep adding new flash while they rake it in off the mentally ill.
I'd say this is wrong for the following reason, among others... If someone pays $50 bucks for a product and thinks it sucks, they are going to still play it for awhile thinking they better at least get their money out of it. The company is hoping this guy sticks around long enough to profit from or better yet get hooked.
If someone gets the CD for free, and thinks the game sucks, they will quit. Why waste time. Nothing invested, nothing to lose.
They are the exact same as a MUD. If you think putting a pretty GUI on a MUD makes it any better, think again. Instead of typing E to go east, you spend 5 minutes of making your character walk to the east. UGggh, I'm way to lazy to play MMORPGs. Heck, I was too lazy to even get my MUD characters advanced.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the point isn't a slow down in development, but the worry that enterprises would consider less adequate solutions due to the threat of getting involved in litigation over Linux. Development might be equal, but did the lawsuits slow down adoption of Open Source by large scale enterprises? If so, I believe that's exactly the point the poster was making. If SCO has hindered the adoption of Linux by enterprise users, then it has reduced the flow of funds into Linux. That in turn harms Linux by helping it's competitors, indirectly reducing the amount of resources companies can sink into linux development, etc. While SCO litigation isn't a killing blow to linux in itself, it gives time for competitors to get a foot in the door, hook potential clients into long term contracts or long term commitments due to initial investments. I think the poster had an excellent point and I had not really considered this facet of the SCO attack so fully until he brought it up. Good point, poster.
IT isn't discretionary spending unless your schools are seriously hosing the budget. IT should be planned as part of the schools infrastructure. Your school will be required to have a school improvement plan or comprehensive plan and section five will address their plans for technology. It is a very detailed section encompassing several areas of technology including community outreach. I could be off on that and it could just be a Michigan thing, but I believe it is federally mandated as part of NCLB. Check it out. Your school should have it available for public review.
"Education != Vocational Training"? It's hard to believe you are referring to office applications as vocational training and endorsing computer programming as regular education. These students will have to know how to use computer and online resources just as much as they'll need to know how to go to the library and find a book. I wish students could learn programming in school, but they need to understand computer skills necessary for school work before they start spending their time programming.
I agree that other media is being ignored too much in favor of the online version. However, the schools I work at have very little material in the library. They are unlikely to find any discussions from big thinkers on current issues in print in our K-8 library. That is a shame and definitely should be corrected. However, computers do allow access to forums and media that would not otherwise be accessible to these students.
Regarding your estimates on teaching computer skills in regard to office software, I am in good position to argue against your guesswork. We have a 6 year program to teach skills with the 6th year being primarily review and independant use of those skills. Now, this could be done more quickly if we decided instead of integrating technology into the curriculum, to teach computers functions straight without tying them into the curriculum, but that would be a waste of time when these skill can be taught for the most part by applying typical core lessons to computer use. Perhaps you had a strong enough of a background that you could pick up office applications in an hour. Most of the students at my schools, while claiming they have a computer at home, do not even understand the concept of right versus left mouse clicking. Try thinking about every step you would have to learn to use an office program. Then reconsider those steps. Consider what things you had to learn before you could perform those basic functions. You must start with identifying what the computer parts are, understanding what an operating system is, differences between software types such as games, spreadsheets, word processors, you would have you understand how to use a mouse, how to type to some extent, what icons are and how they represent files, save versus save as, file systems, menu bars, tool bars, network structure to some extent if working with network drives (common place now). How about operating a web browser, what is a search engine, how do the tool bars move you around.
Unless you have a fortune invested in computers, students will be sharing computers. Unless you want to throw away math and english there is only going to be so much time in the day to cover computer skills. That makes it a long time to teach a student from the ground up. And that's exactly what must happen unless you want to split students into those that will understand computers from experience at home, and those who have had a shoddy education because they were taught assuming they would already know all the background.
And you want them to learn programming? Get in line behind the guy who wants to teach them a foreign language, we don't have time to fit that in either.
" When business leaders talk about what they need from new recruits, they hardly mention computer skills, which they find they can teach employees relatively easily on their own."
Hmmm, sure, because business leaders are down there training new employees themselves. I worked for a bank where for some reason they decided to hire a bunch of idiots. Apparently because it was such a suck ass job that no one else wanted it. Well, since after months they still could not use Windows let alone any specific application software, another employee and myself were reassigned. We got to sit in a couple of 4 person cubicles with the illiterates to "help them". This babysitting pretty much consisted of walking them through every basic function they were trying to perform.
I've seen one teacher at a school hired and she admitted to me during training that she never would have taken the job if she had been told how much of their work required the computer...and then she quit after 5 months. So not only was she not able to do the job, not only was the time of other employees wasted trying to do her work for her, not only was my time wasted trying to train her, more time was wasted because someone new needed to be trained again in 6 months. That wasted a ton of resources and certainly was a harm to the education process at this school.
I've seen this kind of behavior at every job I've worked at, employees are hired by management without a real understanding of the technical skills required for the job, and downplaying their significance for those prospective employees that are obviously intimidated by the computer. Then the new employees are thrust on the departments with no ability to function at their job because not only can they not use the software they need for the job, they don't have the skills or the background to learn the software, or often don't have the knowledge or skills to even use the operating system.
Of course, this is not just a problem with students learning how to use computers so that when they enter the workforce they will be able to handle jobs assigned to them. This is also a problem of managers not understanding the job they are hiring people for, not understanding the technical skills, and of those managers for assuming someone can learn Windows, mouse and keyboard skills, office applications, and company/task specific software in a few hours.
Michigan just finally ditched a lame laptop program by the governor. She felt that giving laptops to every 6th grader in the state would be a good idea since that is when they lose interest in school on average. Hmm, except they weren't entirely free to the school district, terribly expensive for taxpayers considering a budget deficet and education spending cuts. And she didn't think to include any teacher training, support, etc in her plan. So she was going to spend a fortune buying laptops for students with no plan to continue the program next year, and no plan for what to do with the laptops.
I love technology in the schools. But since my postion in the schools deals with technology integration into the curriculum and training of staff to use the technology in the classroom I hate these plans to throw technology into schools thinking a computer with no support, plans, or training, is going to help students.
Why should programming be taught to the average student instead of office applications such as Word? You call this a waste of computers? Rather than programming, it is more likely that these students will need office software skills when they enter the work force. NCLB states students are to be proficient at technology before leaving the 8th grade. Apparently the country expects students to be able to do independant research, web research, use an electronic card catalog, type up reports, etc, in high school without a teacher walking them through every tiny little step. I think that is a pretty good goal. I don't care if students did that 20 years ago without computers. 20 years ago they didn't have libraries' card catalogs on computers, they didn't have online encyclopedias, they didn't have online discussion forums where students could follow that conversations and discussions of our greatest minds. I have two points there, one that resources are being made available on a computer versus paper and ink as they were 20 years ago; and secondly, that resources we have never had as a culture/society/student are now ours for the taking...if we have the skills and equipment to access them.
This is very topical to what I do. My job is definitely multifaceted, but primarily my job is (supposed to be) training teachers in K-8 to effectively use technology in the classroom. Since NCLB Act makes technological proficiency mandatory by the end of 8th grade, a large part of my job is getting these teachers to teach computers to students, as the schools I work for do not have computer teachers for K-8.
We kind of break things up a bit, we differentiate teaching using computers as resources, and teaching skills on the computer. For the former, consider showing a presentation using powerpoint or videos from the web. For the latter, we have broken down the skills into categories and very narrowly defined sub-categories. We determine what skills students should learn and then we determine when they should learn it. On top of that we provide the lessons to the teachers and explain what skills the students should be expected to learn.
All of this is useless without a trained teaching staff. I work for a small schools, K-8 and about 650 students. Consider K-2 doesn't even get trained on computer skills. That means that at these schools 3-8 grade teachers, 21 of them, need training in order to provide technology instruction to 650 students. This instruction ranges from hardware components to office applications to the concepts of how technology has impacted our life.
This is a nightmare. But it is worth it. And not just because of the law requiring it. It's worth it because right now I'm working with about 60 teachers without a clue. PC's have been commonplace for at least a good decade depending on your viewpoint (I'd argue about the time AOL talked everyone into getting a computer). Computers are necessary for everything at the school including attendance and grades, even the library card catalog (only on computer), as well as lesson plans. This is only what the teachers have to deal with at the school. They are ill prepared for it and most of them barely capabable of the skills needed in a modern workforce. Computer instruction is necessary to avoid that problem for the next generation.
These kids getting out of 8th grade will be voting for your president (in the USA) in 5 years in the election after the one this next November. Will they be able to use the voting machines? Or more importantly, will they be able to understand the consequences that the technology inside the voting machines will have on their voting rights? Having basic knowledge of government, history, math, and being able to read, those are the very critical items that must be taught. However, without the skills to use that knowledge, without the resources to research, and the insight into how those resources work, then those children will become men and women whose knowledge is useless.
"Obviously some are going to be out of reach, but multimedia is no subst for the real thing when it's at all possible."
I think that's the whole point of the original poster. Most experiments are now out of reach of students in school.
I had to actually RTFA on this one. I agree. This was a pretty weak case mod. The plexi and lights were kind of pretty, but other parts on the case looked lame, like they came from an old XT. I really don't see how putting a streamlined x-box into a plexi rectangle with lights on it is all that cool. Same case for a real computer might have been okay, as it would have probably been replacing a beige metal rectangle instead of streamlined black chassis. Unless that mod is going to house a commodore 64 and atari 2600 along with the x-box it's going to be lame mod of the month. No elite hacking skills, no elite case modding skills. At least if he had filled that tank with water before he dumped the x-box in he would have gotten the support of the anti-MS zealots.
"why would one fight over the crowded 2.4 GHz band?"
Because I want equipment that will be able to penetrate through a couple of walls and a floor or 2.
Actually, this is a great deal. Geeks at academic institutions don't necessarily need phone support, or at least it's not cost effective in many cases. However, academics absolutely need the more stable Enterprise version of RH, not the new Fedora. Also, the updates and computer based support is essential for the professionals at the college to get their computers running as only they know how, but with the information they need and the updates to keep it stable.
As for students, this is a solid benefit. CS majors will want a linux distro that offers support. They will benefit from an extremely cheap OS and support system. And there's still the free version for hobbyists that do not need immediate professional support, or do not need it enough to pay for it. Personally, I like playing around on linux, I don't use it that much, and I'm cheap. I'd take the free version. But if I was in one of these two situations or in a situation where I needed enterprise level support I would jump at one of these deals from RH.
This is great news as this addresses some very angry complaints in the Interview section that the academics had for RH. Goes to show that a strong community of professions with valid concerns and good suggestions can make a significant impact on businesses.
Thank you. I didn't even get an update that it had been modded "Troll". Topic is spammers who are using windows messenger to harrass and extort money and how some of them got busted. I commented on the same thing happening to me and how I dealt with my spammer and I get trolled? WTF, I think I must have pissed someone off.
I was tempted to do something "drastic" when I got a spam like this one time. Stupid bastard had spammed through windows messenger service. It was extortion. He basically was telling people that in order to get him to stop harrassing them with pop-ups that they would have to go to his site and buy some web security software. Norton I think. I checked into it and Mr Dumbass had registered his domain with real info...including home address and phone #. I forwarded the information to Symantic that some douche bag was giving them a bad rep by associating them with extortion. Then I emailed Mr Dumbass that I had his home address and info and would be forwarding it to his local authorities so they could charge him with extortion. I also told him that he had entered my system with non-approved system resources and as such he was committing computer related hacking activities. He replied back that the intent of windows messenger was that lame ass spammers like him could spam people. I harrassed him a little bit, but basically, I was just making idle threats. I doubt his local authorities would give a fuck. The feds certainly wouldn't care, even though it was a interstate related extortion scheme. I ought to look up his info. I could post it here so we could all give him a call and tell him what a punk ass bitch he is.
Amazing! You still clearly don't grasp that it is could be beneficial to designing traffic systems to use IR or some other similar method to track vehicles approaching a light.
Instead of recognizing your impulsive and insulting post, you instead try to defend your poorly reasoned argument by arguing that no one mentioned designing the system to to accomadate emergency vehicles.
Since your arguments don't involve a security system preventing one legged chimps with IR transmitters strapped to their backs from interfering with the system, may I also assume you are opposed to a system that would not allow for one legged chimp IR monkeys? The point you picked on did not say anything about interfering with existing traffic, but merely commented on an improved system that could use IR transmitters to track vehicles and improve traffic conditions. Pay attention to the intention of posters instead of using as an excuse to troll. You'd get more respect that way than instead of insulting people with lines like "If you want to think stupid things, go ahead, but don't encourage your fellow idiots to do something that could kill innocent people.
"
Great points. I think the best point is, and my biggest problem is, these guys just can't handle the vehicle. It's not just that it's bigger. It's heavier. It's harder to see out. And it's often more insulated from the road, the driver is less in touch with his surroundings.
An example of not being able to handle the vehicle. I was at the store today. I waited several minutes while an old woman tried to back her avalanche out of the parking space. She clearly had no skills to handle that large of a vehicle. She couldn't see out well. And there is nothing that old lady needed an Avalanche for.
An example of being out of touch? I was making a 2 hour expressway road trip. Mostly 2 lane highways. I was constantly getting stuck behind vehicles. I started noticing that 95% of them were SUVs. Well, I started watching. Most of those guys in the SUVs were on the phone, chatting with whoever, completely oblivious to the world around them. It is more difficult to stay in touch in an SUV. You are further from the road, other drivers, less sounds, better suspension, etc.
I have a friend with a giant truck. He needs it. He hauls horses and does just about anything else that you can think of the regular joe manly man doing. He does it all. But he's also the best driver I've ever known. He knows how to handle the vehicle he bought. He took special care to make sure mirrors were covering his blind spots. He even added extra ones. Most drivers I've seen don't take those precautions or get any extra training for the larger vehicle they've decided to drive.
We'd have plenty of food if we'd just use soylent green.
Yeah, but I wouldn't be calling them bastards if they killed SCO, I'd buy them a drink.
I would love to see a non-OCD marketed MMORPG. I would like to play some of those out there, but I had to give up on Everquest pretty quickly as I realized that I didn't have 4 hours at a time to devote to the game that I would need to advance.
You still don't get it do you?
This could also be a great technology for improving the situation with the timing of lights as well as emergency vehicle situations. But instead you have to insult others' intelligence while you spout off on topics you clearly haven't taken the time to grasp. Do you need someone to draw you a chart?
In South Park voice...
SCO killed GPL!!
You bastards!
Don't be a chump.
With sophisticated modeling software we could have smart intersections that detected the need to switch the lights based on the volume of traffic. This would be even more useful if used in a broader concept.
If people all day long approached the intersection and all had IR transmitters....That's a hell of a lot of extremely precise data that could be used to design quality efficient traffic systems for any size city.
It would help prevent situations like the guy who runs a red at 3AM because the traffic system set the opposing traffic to have a 5 minute green...with no traffic because it's 3AM. It would enable coordinators to implement a well designed light timing system to deter speeders by providing no benefit to speeding.
This was an excellent comment that you failed to grasp and posted a ridiculous reply to.
I think the point this guy is missing is the games are designed for exactly the reasons he does not like. They are designed to hook OCDs into a subscription based model. They don't need to get the best elite players. They don't need to get grandma or Billy down the street. They only need to get the OCDs hooked and keep adding new flash while they rake it in off the mentally ill.
I'd say this is wrong for the following reason, among others...
If someone pays $50 bucks for a product and thinks it sucks, they are going to still play it for awhile thinking they better at least get their money out of it. The company is hoping this guy sticks around long enough to profit from or better yet get hooked.
If someone gets the CD for free, and thinks the game sucks, they will quit. Why waste time. Nothing invested, nothing to lose.
They are the exact same as a MUD. If you think putting a pretty GUI on a MUD makes it any better, think again. Instead of typing E to go east, you spend 5 minutes of making your character walk to the east. UGggh, I'm way to lazy to play MMORPGs. Heck, I was too lazy to even get my MUD characters advanced.