That is such a giant blanket statement. You are way so far to the extreme it makes it hard for people to accept the good points of your post. Computers are misused by many teachers. I work for a school and my job is to make sure teachers understand how to use their computers, and when and why.
Homeschooled kids will do better. One of the reasons is that a homeschooled kid isn't competing with 29 other kids for the teacher's attention. Sometimes a computer can give a student instant feedback that is just not otherwise possible with the size of current classrooms.
Computers in the classroom allow teachers to present information in different ways, 3-D modeling, conferencing, visualizing abstract concepts, etc.
Federal law states that by the end of 8th grade that a student should be computer literate. There are many research skills that are necessary to understand on the computer. When was the last time you saw a card catalog that was not on a computer?
And how is a school district going to keep track of all of their attendance, discipline issues, etc, without a computer in the classroom? Districts are becoming more efficient and saving money by using programs to enter and track student information including grades and attendance. How would this happen without a classroom computer? And are you suggesting that every teacher should be forced to handwrite every assignment and test they give to the student? Where are they going to type it up without a classroom computer?
Technology is just a word for the tools we use. Tools are not evil, they are not detrimental just for existing. Isn't it more true that the problem is that students aren't using how or when to use the correct tools? Do I understand that you are stating that computers should be used for computer classes but not used to enhance the core curriculum? What a waste of time and money to teach a kid to use a computer if you don't believe computers are beneficial.
Are you kidding? There's no point in laying the blame at IT for your problems. Opening up all the computers leaves IT supporting dozens to hundreds if not thousands of computers running various combinations of untested software/hardware. Not to mention the threat of BSA liability. And what about malware damaging the computer setup, or even worse, attacking the network. What if a program causes network problems or damages a database? There are reasons why the IT dept of any large company takes reasonable precautions about what software and hardware is used. Those include less problems for the users and a more secure system. IT staff have the same problems as any other staff. Typically overworked and asked to do more with fewer resources. They are not going to be there to solve your problems if they have to troubleshoot or install nonstandard equipment/software throughout the userbase. Let's face it, if you want more IT, you need to go to the suits to give IT more money. Isn't that true of getting resources for anything? A company isn't going to give you more IT any more than it will give you anything else unless you make your case for how it will save/make them money. You say that IT admins jobs are not to cause themselves the least hassle? When the company spends a lot of money for every IT person, it is absolutely their job to find ways to reduce the load on the IT department. And you can put money on it that they are reminded of that very frequently.
Re:Nice, but they've got it all wrong...
on
Linux Desktop Guide
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· Score: 1
"I almost agree with you. The point, though, is that Microsoft is being squeezed by Linux in very real ways." I agree with you. Linux is definitely in an excellent position to gain home desktop market share. I know this is a oversimplification of the situation, but...Apple and MS competed. Apple was in the schools, MS was in the office. Mr. Guy didn't care that Johnny used Apple at school, Mr. Guy used MS at work and that was what he was buying. Linux is making a strong showing in the server arena. Already running a linux server? Might as well switch those office desktops over to Linux. More linux on the servers mean that more linux on the office desktops will likely be coming along. More Linux on the office desktops mean more linux on those home pc's that the office workers are buying. Why wouldn't they want Linux when they are using OpenOffice and Mozilla at work anyway? They will know the programs, they will know the GUI. Just as MS moved successfully from the office, so will Linux.
Seems like everyone on here is calling for Bethseda to keep the same type of story, same type of gameplay. I thought Fallout 2 was great. I just dug up my old CD a few days ago and was thinking about reinstalling it. But, does Fallout 3 have to be a copy of Fallout 2 but with nicer graphics? What would be the point. Bethseda might do some new things that just make an awful game. Or they might try some new things and they would be an excellent way to preserve the old game's theme and feel without turning it into a tired old rerun. I'd personally rather see a game developer try something kind of new and fail than to see them make some cheesy rerun remake of an old game that still works. I'll just play Fallout 2 if I want to play Fallout 2, why would I pay $50 for a tired rehash?
I like your point (2). I haven't really heard that before but it really strikes home. I am busy. And as such I give up what means less to me. So, I don't go to movies often. They are expensive and I know there will be something better next week and it will be on DVD soon enough. By the time the DVD's roll out I've forgotten the movie or their marketing just isn't as convincing. Just too many movies that aren't special that can wait long enough to be forgotten.
How is South Park the Movie low brow? A musical political satire focusing on censorship and it's toll on children as their real problems are ignored while activists witch hunt for a scape goat? It's kind of an artsy indy type movie I thought. Great music though. That really was a shame what happened with Phil Collins winning. I used to like him, but his Disney song had nothing on the music from South Park.
That's pretty lame if you or someone else has to take it out on their co-workers for having the balls to say that they have a life. It's management's problem if they can't adequately staff the workplace. If you are choosing to work a bunch of overtime hours to impress Supervisor Schmuck that's up to you. But it's not fair to blame that on the guy who can stick up for himself and tell management that their family comes first. If your project requires people to pick up co-workers overtime on top of their own in order to meet deadlines, either it is understaffed or mismanaged. By sticking up for yourselves instead of giving into management it will leave them in a position to either manage their project better or re-evaluate their profit margins on the project. On the other hand, they could replace you with someone who will put in a bunch of overtime hours and burn themselves out in 5 years.
China can keep snapping up land as long as they keep enslaving young boys and politic prisoners to make my crappy, yet cheap, shoes and tacky dollar store items.
If they can hire squads of enforcers...err, I mean lawyers, to litigate against children, grandmothers and college students, if they have time and resources to lobby congress, if they have the energy left to harrass colleges and ISP's to rat out their customers, and on top of all that they find time to spy on people using Kazaa.....Well then they absolutely have no excuse for keeping their clients money because it's too hard to find them. Poor babies, they could find the adolecent who downloaded some retarted Spears song but it's just too hard for them to find their FAMOUS clients?
No, the problem is that people should be investigated when suspected of committing a crime. People should not be investigated for suspicion of being somebody who might commit a crime. Because, if you allow for that, what is an acceptable critera for suspecting that someone might commit a crime? His looks, his friends, mailing lists he is on, organizations he donates money too, the length of his hair, his clothes, the library books he checks out, etc. I would say this most closely ties into ongoing debates about the governments new "rights" to search through your library records without your consent, without a warrant, etc. Our government should not be policing student research, even if it isn't obviously academic. If it's a problem of kids playing some stupid D&D or paintball or whatever in the basement then leave that up to campus security, not federal investigators.
I agree, Knoppix STD is fun. I did not find it nearly as useful or easy to use as good old Knoppix 3.3 (which I love). However, the security tools distribution of Knoppix is very useful in its purpose of security evaluation and, well, hacking a couple boxes. Just the other week my boss hosed her home XP system by losing her only active account password. I used the STD CD to boot and use chntpw to reset the administrator password to blank and activate it. Then once I was on the box I could use LC4 that I downloaded from @stake to crack her old password. STD has tools for cracking passwords from the NT box but I just am too much of a *nix noob to get them working right.
My thoughts on this are that the best 3D interface right now would be the mouse. Consider a 3 button scroll wheel mouse. Imagine that when the user has the desktop selected, or in other words, the user does not have any particular window selected, the the scroll wheel zooms in and out (forwards and backwards from user perspective) of 3D space. When holding down the 3rd button, or scroll wheel button, the user can manipulate the 3 dimensional space by reorienting the user (like rotating the space as you would a ball). I think this would allow you to use existing hardware to implement a new 3D desktop model. This would still leave you with a one handed interface that people are already familiar with. This does sound like fun. But overall, I'm pretty happy with the current desktop model. But, I could imagine this would be very useful for some people to organize their file systems.
Amen to that. I have a dual monitor NVidia now. I have found I love dual monitor so much that I don't think I could switch to a better card and lose out on my dual monitor support. In fact, I'm thinking about shoving an old PCI piece of junk video card in my computer too, so that I can add a 3rd monitor. I just need more desk space. People ask me why I need all those monitors, but I guess they just aren't multitaskers, the same way I am. I right now have Firefox maximized on one monitor while I have IE maximized in the other for some movie showtimes. Also works great for watching videos or web surfing while mudding. This was more of an issue when monitors were small with low res and while I had dial up. But I've found this is still a great solution. Especially when copying files, moving data from one document to another, etc. Would you know of any okay gaming video cards that also feature dual monitor support?
Yeah, I have heard of a concept called free time. Have you? Did you even read my post? I posted a comment that paying some professional to do a menial job that would take a layman 30 man hours in order to save your free time is a pretty good deal. I'm not rich, but I could probably afford the professional tree cutting service after a couple days of work. If that money could save me !!!30!!! hours of my free time to spend with my family or whatever hobby, that's a bargain. I've worked damn hard for my free time. I get two days off for every 5 days worked. After I get done all the minutia that my life requires, such as paying taxes, doing laundry, going grocery shopping I have about 1 day per week to spend with my family. If I had to pay some bureacracy mandated bozo to cut down my tree, I would rather do that than lose one of those few days a month that I have to spend alone with my family. That's how I'd spend my free time. Not everyone has the same interests or priorities. Maybe you have more free time than I do. Maybe you don't have a family or wish to spend time with them. Maybe cutting down trees is your favorite stress relieving hobby. Knock yourself out.
I keep seeing people replying to you regarding what they see as huge costs for added content needing to be recouped in these monthly fees. I'll disagree with them with two points. 1. expansion packs... games like everquest don't give you added content for subscription fees. they require the purchase of expansion packs. 2. if the game is so great already to warrant the $15, why do they need to immediately add new content? If it doesn't need to be immediately added, then why are current users paying for added content that they aren't seeing? Future users could easily pay for an expansion pack for added material.
It's a fucking video game. They don't make anyone realistic. Until I get lasers that shoot out of my nose and missles that shoot out of my ass, I'm pretty sure the games don't depict males all that well either.
Hope there is a developer reading this. I am a cheap bastard that is playing a free mod for a copied game that is 4 years old at least to begin with. And I'm doing it on my cheap ass Duron 900 Mhz as well. An Otherland MMORPG would get even a cheapskate like me to pony up some serious money to get immersed in that kind of challenging diverse gamescape.
6 people times 5 hours equals 30 man-hours. Add fuel, wear and tear. I believe the tree removal service would have been a bargain. Even without the fines and the hassle.
I'll tackle each one of these seperately. 1. Not being able to find the browser icon again.....The same skill applies here. It is recognizing a picture that represents a file. The users' failure to remember an icon is hardly a failure of linux. If she has these kinds of problems, she probably wouldn't have recognized a big blue "e" after using IE the first time. 2. Not being able to figure out how to open a website....This isn't freaking rocket science. There is a long white "address" box with the current page's URL typed inside of it. Clicking in the white box will allow you to type in a web page. The basic layout of a browser under linux or Windows is the same. The format for typing an URL is exactly the same. Linux is certainly no more difficult than Windows on this.
In the example you give, whether in Windows or Linux, you have a simple program. It is used the same in both Linux and Windows with basically the same layout and requiring the same level of skills. This hardly shows a failure on Linux's part. There are plenty of areas in which Linux can be more complicated than Windows. I'm not sure why you posted an example for a situation in which Linux mimics Windows and for which Linux performs equally as well.
It's just the circle of life. For a long time corporations have been buying votes from politicians. Now it's the governments' turn to buy votes back from a corporation. It's like the food cycle, just with the 'stripping of Americans' freedom and right to vote' instead of food.
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Computers are misused by many teachers. I work for a school and my job is to make sure teachers understand how to use their computers, and when and why.
Homeschooled kids will do better. One of the reasons is that a homeschooled kid isn't competing with 29 other kids for the teacher's attention. Sometimes a computer can give a student instant feedback that is just not otherwise possible with the size of current classrooms.
Computers in the classroom allow teachers to present information in different ways, 3-D modeling, conferencing, visualizing abstract concepts, etc.
Federal law states that by the end of 8th grade that a student should be computer literate. There are many research skills that are necessary to understand on the computer. When was the last time you saw a card catalog that was not on a computer?
And how is a school district going to keep track of all of their attendance, discipline issues, etc, without a computer in the classroom? Districts are becoming more efficient and saving money by using programs to enter and track student information including grades and attendance. How would this happen without a classroom computer? And are you suggesting that every teacher should be forced to handwrite every assignment and test they give to the student? Where are they going to type it up without a classroom computer?
Technology is just a word for the tools we use. Tools are not evil, they are not detrimental just for existing. Isn't it more true that the problem is that students aren't using how or when to use the correct tools? Do I understand that you are stating that computers should be used for computer classes but not used to enhance the core curriculum? What a waste of time and money to teach a kid to use a computer if you don't believe computers are beneficial.
Are you kidding? There's no point in laying the blame at IT for your problems. Opening up all the computers leaves IT supporting dozens to hundreds if not thousands of computers running various combinations of untested software/hardware. Not to mention the threat of BSA liability. And what about malware damaging the computer setup, or even worse, attacking the network. What if a program causes network problems or damages a database? There are reasons why the IT dept of any large company takes reasonable precautions about what software and hardware is used. Those include less problems for the users and a more secure system.
IT staff have the same problems as any other staff. Typically overworked and asked to do more with fewer resources. They are not going to be there to solve your problems if they have to troubleshoot or install nonstandard equipment/software throughout the userbase. Let's face it, if you want more IT, you need to go to the suits to give IT more money. Isn't that true of getting resources for anything? A company isn't going to give you more IT any more than it will give you anything else unless you make your case for how it will save/make them money.
You say that IT admins jobs are not to cause themselves the least hassle? When the company spends a lot of money for every IT person, it is absolutely their job to find ways to reduce the load on the IT department. And you can put money on it that they are reminded of that very frequently.
"I almost agree with you. The point, though, is that Microsoft is being squeezed by Linux in very real ways."
I agree with you. Linux is definitely in an excellent position to gain home desktop market share. I know this is a oversimplification of the situation, but...Apple and MS competed. Apple was in the schools, MS was in the office. Mr. Guy didn't care that Johnny used Apple at school, Mr. Guy used MS at work and that was what he was buying.
Linux is making a strong showing in the server arena. Already running a linux server? Might as well switch those office desktops over to Linux.
More linux on the servers mean that more linux on the office desktops will likely be coming along. More Linux on the office desktops mean more linux on those home pc's that the office workers are buying. Why wouldn't they want Linux when they are using OpenOffice and Mozilla at work anyway? They will know the programs, they will know the GUI. Just as MS moved successfully from the office, so will Linux.
Seems like everyone on here is calling for Bethseda to keep the same type of story, same type of gameplay. I thought Fallout 2 was great. I just dug up my old CD a few days ago and was thinking about reinstalling it. But, does Fallout 3 have to be a copy of Fallout 2 but with nicer graphics? What would be the point. Bethseda might do some new things that just make an awful game. Or they might try some new things and they would be an excellent way to preserve the old game's theme and feel without turning it into a tired old rerun.
I'd personally rather see a game developer try something kind of new and fail than to see them make some cheesy rerun remake of an old game that still works. I'll just play Fallout 2 if I want to play Fallout 2, why would I pay $50 for a tired rehash?
I like your point (2). I haven't really heard that before but it really strikes home. I am busy. And as such I give up what means less to me. So, I don't go to movies often. They are expensive and I know there will be something better next week and it will be on DVD soon enough. By the time the DVD's roll out I've forgotten the movie or their marketing just isn't as convincing. Just too many movies that aren't special that can wait long enough to be forgotten.
How is South Park the Movie low brow? A musical political satire focusing on censorship and it's toll on children as their real problems are ignored while activists witch hunt for a scape goat? It's kind of an artsy indy type movie I thought. Great music though. That really was a shame what happened with Phil Collins winning. I used to like him, but his Disney song had nothing on the music from South Park.
That's pretty lame if you or someone else has to take it out on their co-workers for having the balls to say that they have a life.
It's management's problem if they can't adequately staff the workplace. If you are choosing to work a bunch of overtime hours to impress Supervisor Schmuck that's up to you. But it's not fair to blame that on the guy who can stick up for himself and tell management that their family comes first.
If your project requires people to pick up co-workers overtime on top of their own in order to meet deadlines, either it is understaffed or mismanaged. By sticking up for yourselves instead of giving into management it will leave them in a position to either manage their project better or re-evaluate their profit margins on the project. On the other hand, they could replace you with someone who will put in a bunch of overtime hours and burn themselves out in 5 years.
Hmmmm, sarcasm detector failure.
GOTO LINE 10
China can keep snapping up land as long as they keep enslaving young boys and politic prisoners to make my crappy, yet cheap, shoes and tacky dollar store items.
Sounds like the time I told my wife about the article I read on here about making ball lightning in the microwave.
I also ended up getting banned from going to see my brother for a month since he has a microwave too.
Leave multi-user dungeons out of this.
If they can hire squads of enforcers...err, I mean lawyers, to litigate against children, grandmothers and college students, if they have time and resources to lobby congress, if they have the energy left to harrass colleges and ISP's to rat out their customers, and on top of all that they find time to spy on people using Kazaa.....Well then they absolutely have no excuse for keeping their clients money because it's too hard to find them. Poor babies, they could find the adolecent who downloaded some retarted Spears song but it's just too hard for them to find their FAMOUS clients?
These are just politicians. They might not even be able to find Nebraska.
No, the problem is that people should be investigated when suspected of committing a crime. People should not be investigated for suspicion of being somebody who might commit a crime. Because, if you allow for that, what is an acceptable critera for suspecting that someone might commit a crime? His looks, his friends, mailing lists he is on, organizations he donates money too, the length of his hair, his clothes, the library books he checks out, etc. I would say this most closely ties into ongoing debates about the governments new "rights" to search through your library records without your consent, without a warrant, etc. Our government should not be policing student research, even if it isn't obviously academic. If it's a problem of kids playing some stupid D&D or paintball or whatever in the basement then leave that up to campus security, not federal investigators.
I agree, Knoppix STD is fun. I did not find it nearly as useful or easy to use as good old Knoppix 3.3 (which I love). However, the security tools distribution of Knoppix is very useful in its purpose of security evaluation and, well, hacking a couple boxes. Just the other week my boss hosed her home XP system by losing her only active account password. I used the STD CD to boot and use chntpw to reset the administrator password to blank and activate it. Then once I was on the box I could use LC4 that I downloaded from @stake to crack her old password. STD has tools for cracking passwords from the NT box but I just am too much of a *nix noob to get them working right.
How long until his server gets the Zmodem protocol so I can at least resume my failed download?
My thoughts on this are that the best 3D interface right now would be the mouse. Consider a 3 button scroll wheel mouse. Imagine that when the user has the desktop selected, or in other words, the user does not have any particular window selected, the the scroll wheel zooms in and out (forwards and backwards from user perspective) of 3D space. When holding down the 3rd button, or scroll wheel button, the user can manipulate the 3 dimensional space by reorienting the user (like rotating the space as you would a ball).
I think this would allow you to use existing hardware to implement a new 3D desktop model. This would still leave you with a one handed interface that people are already familiar with.
This does sound like fun. But overall, I'm pretty happy with the current desktop model. But, I could imagine this would be very useful for some people to organize their file systems.
Amen to that. I have a dual monitor NVidia now. I have found I love dual monitor so much that I don't think I could switch to a better card and lose out on my dual monitor support. In fact, I'm thinking about shoving an old PCI piece of junk video card in my computer too, so that I can add a 3rd monitor. I just need more desk space.
People ask me why I need all those monitors, but I guess they just aren't multitaskers, the same way I am. I right now have Firefox maximized on one monitor while I have IE maximized in the other for some movie showtimes. Also works great for watching videos or web surfing while mudding.
This was more of an issue when monitors were small with low res and while I had dial up. But I've found this is still a great solution. Especially when copying files, moving data from one document to another, etc.
Would you know of any okay gaming video cards that also feature dual monitor support?
Yeah, I have heard of a concept called free time. Have you?
Did you even read my post? I posted a comment that paying some professional to do a menial job that would take a layman 30 man hours in order to save your free time is a pretty good deal. I'm not rich, but I could probably afford the professional tree cutting service after a couple days of work. If that money could save me !!!30!!! hours of my free time to spend with my family or whatever hobby, that's a bargain.
I've worked damn hard for my free time. I get two days off for every 5 days worked. After I get done all the minutia that my life requires, such as paying taxes, doing laundry, going grocery shopping I have about 1 day per week to spend with my family. If I had to pay some bureacracy mandated bozo to cut down my tree, I would rather do that than lose one of those few days a month that I have to spend alone with my family. That's how I'd spend my free time.
Not everyone has the same interests or priorities. Maybe you have more free time than I do. Maybe you don't have a family or wish to spend time with them. Maybe cutting down trees is your favorite stress relieving hobby. Knock yourself out.
I keep seeing people replying to you regarding what they see as huge costs for added content needing to be recouped in these monthly fees. I'll disagree with them with two points.
1. expansion packs... games like everquest don't give you added content for subscription fees. they require the purchase of expansion packs.
2. if the game is so great already to warrant the $15, why do they need to immediately add new content? If it doesn't need to be immediately added, then why are current users paying for added content that they aren't seeing? Future users could easily pay for an expansion pack for added material.
It's a fucking video game. They don't make anyone realistic. Until I get lasers that shoot out of my nose and missles that shoot out of my ass, I'm pretty sure the games don't depict males all that well either.
Hope there is a developer reading this. I am a cheap bastard that is playing a free mod for a copied game that is 4 years old at least to begin with. And I'm doing it on my cheap ass Duron 900 Mhz as well. An Otherland MMORPG would get even a cheapskate like me to pony up some serious money to get immersed in that kind of challenging diverse gamescape.
6 people times 5 hours equals 30 man-hours. Add fuel, wear and tear. I believe the tree removal service would have been a bargain. Even without the fines and the hassle.
I'll tackle each one of these seperately.
1. Not being able to find the browser icon again.....The same skill applies here. It is recognizing a picture that represents a file. The users' failure to remember an icon is hardly a failure of linux. If she has these kinds of problems, she probably wouldn't have recognized a big blue "e" after using IE the first time.
2. Not being able to figure out how to open a website....This isn't freaking rocket science. There is a long white "address" box with the current page's URL typed inside of it. Clicking in the white box will allow you to type in a web page. The basic layout of a browser under linux or Windows is the same. The format for typing an URL is exactly the same. Linux is certainly no more difficult than Windows on this.
In the example you give, whether in Windows or Linux, you have a simple program. It is used the same in both Linux and Windows with basically the same layout and requiring the same level of skills. This hardly shows a failure on Linux's part. There are plenty of areas in which Linux can be more complicated than Windows. I'm not sure why you posted an example for a situation in which Linux mimics Windows and for which Linux performs equally as well.
It's just the circle of life. For a long time corporations have been buying votes from politicians. Now it's the governments' turn to buy votes back from a corporation. It's like the food cycle, just with the 'stripping of Americans' freedom and right to vote' instead of food.