Actually, my sister-in-law just went into teaching last year (math as well). She was an office manager for 3 years after college. She took 3 classes to meet her requirements, taught with an observer for one semester, and is now a teacher in the Houston area (though not in HISD).
Her description of the reason for the observer was so they could determine, outside of testing her, that she knew the material well, and could apply that material in a classroom in reaching children.
I'd never suggest I could go from an office/cubicle/small desk in the tech lab to a classroom without any effort at all on my part, but wouldn't that small effort be worth it? I'm sure not everyone is cut out to teach children, or may have a hard time relating what they've learned in a classroom. That's what the certification and observation would attempt to prove/disprove, and to me, it's a small price to pay to make sure our children are getting the most out of their education.
A point I think the article misses on, and a fairly important one, is the current education system in the US. While problem solving (vs. memorization) is still the focus of education here, it's not as enforced as it was in the past.
I have family in several states in education and most agree that we're turning out fewer problem solvers than in the past. None seems to have a solution, outside of parenting (or lack thereof), which I think is the leading killer of a solid education.
What used to draw innovators from other countries was the freedom and opportunity found in the US. Both of those seem to be dwindling. Where does that leave us?
I think we're also in for a lull in innovation in the US, which is scarier to me than the trend in offshore outsourcing. I've been a professional developer for 13 years. Although I haven't been affected yet, I have to assume it will affect me sometime (hopefully later than sooner).
With three children, I am the math and science homework helper in the house. What I find is my children are taught tricks and workarounds rather than an understanding of the fundamental math problems. I'm glad to help my children, and love seeing the light go off in their head when they actually understand the problems they work on. So I have this idea. When I "retire" from development (forced or otherwise) I'm going to become a math teacher, preferably at the middle school ages. I've worked in math my whole career, and have had a wonderful experience with my own children (I know, teaching 25 kids is completely different). I think if more people were to go into teaching towards the end of their career, and in a field that matches their respective career, we would be turning out more innovators and maybe worry less about the future of the working world in the US.
Admittedly, I have heard that sellers sometimes have problems with PayPal. They do, however, have the option to not use them. There are quite a few payment options, and a few other proxy websites out there for handling credit card payments. If PayPal continues to be a problem for sellers, I'm sure their business will shrink.
Nowhere in my comment did I say anything like "that's a lie, PayPal rocks." I just related a story as a buyer that uses PayPal.
Here's the kicker. Sellers don't have to use PayPal as an option. If a seller has a bad experience with them, they have the ability to never use them again. Personally, I don't care what the payment option is, other than carrier pigeon.
As a footnote, I think 2 years of solid use is a good set of iterations, statistically speaking. Explain to me how PayPal steals from a minority of buyers?
I still can't establish if folk really are having trouble with paypal
I have used paypal for about 2 years now. I had one bad eBay transaction where the seller took the payment, then disappeared. Their e-mail address bounced, their number was disconnected, etc... Paypal "investigated" for less than two weeks, then gave me a full refund.
My father's paypal account was hacked by someone in Lithuania, who ordered a Raider's jacket. He was also given a full refund by paypal (turns out he was using a weak password).
I'd say given my experience with paypal that they're far from fraudulous, and will continue to use them. Much like eBay, their service beats the alternative by leaps and bounds.
Days off? What are those? I keep hearing people using terms like "vacation" and "sick days" but I've been a contract programmer for 9 years, and seem to have forgotten what those terms mean.
When Enron crashed, I thought it would be funny to buy 100 shares or so, request the actual paper share, and wallpaper my bathroom with them. Seems getting shares printed would cost $25, rendering both Enron and SCO's stock worth less than the paper it's printed on.
It would be interesting to see how it played out in court. IANAL, nor is my fiance (who is a police officer). I do, however, have a friend whose wife is a prosecutor, and I'll have to ask about this one.
However, Having had the opportunity to sit through quite a few cases when my fiance was also a bailiff, one phrase that stuck out was "any reasonable person." The judge used it quite frequently in handing out decisions.
One case in particular reminds me of this one a bit. A man saw a bicycle sitting behind a building, and claims to have seen it there for days. He decided it was abandoned and took it. A couple of days later, the owner saw him on it and called the police, who promptly arrested the man. He told his story and the judge handed the verdict quickly. The judge told this man that "any reasonable person" would have known that this bicycle had to be owned by someone, regardless of how long it sat there, and taking it would be theft, which is the decision that was handed down.
That does differ from this in that it's theft vs. copyright violation, and I've never seen copyright law in court. I still contend that "any reasonable person" should know that the movie isn't free, and that downloading it would be illegal. Maybe we'll just have to leave it as "we're not completely sure, but it would be interesting to see how it plays out."
I'm glad you enjoy a good arguement, because I do too (I hope this is a good one overall).
You still haven't touched on the point I was trying to make, and maybe I didn't make it clearly. Walking Tall is a movie, and most people realize that it is. Wether it be from 1973, 1981, or 2004, it's a movie. Reasonable people realize that movies are not free, and even the crappy one's cost $4.99 in the Walman Marcus cheapo bin. That being said, no reasonable person should believe that a movie that's been released three times is something made with a school camera in some kid's living room with a fake light saber. If you're downloading a movie and don't know for a fact that it's freely distributable, then a good assumption is that it's not free, and some law is being broken.
That differs from the Madonna story in that you knew that it was freely distributable. You said yourself she authorized it's release. What that tells me is that you also know that if she had not authorized it's release, then it would not be freely distributable, and downloading it would cause some law to be broken.
what is Bill Gates interested in a drug making/researching company for?
For the same reason Martha Stewart was interested in ImClone. Drug companies have huge potential in share price gain as they tend to copyright everything, and sell at huge margins... provided, of course, their product gets past the FDA.
Remember, it was Bill Gates the person that bought the stock and got fined, not Micro$oft.
That's "assuming" there were any contracts in the first place.
Historically, "Your honor, he showed me the contract that stated he owned the Brooklyn Bridge" hasn't worked either. And one would have a very difficult time convincing a judge that they assumed a person had a valid contract to distribute freely a movie that is currently in theaters.
Actually, most of the stories I've read show that the R&D is not (yet) leaving the shores here in the US. Typically, the education system in the US is based on problem solving, while in India and China it's based on memorization. I'm not going to try to argue which is better, because only time will tell.
I can say I have experience with this. I've worked with 2 distributed development teams, and the guys on the other end of the line could code at warp speed as long as they had clearly defined specs. However, when a problem arose in the design/architecture, the US team was always the one to solve it. Once the problem was solved, the coding was fast and furious again.
America owes the rest of the world something on the order of $7,159,918,958,491.16
Yet one more uninformed person about how the national debt works in the US, so let me help you with the figures.
Of that amount, 40.6% (according to the website) is debt to the US Treasury. That debt is help in the form of US Bonds, of the 10, 20, and 30 year variety. A small portion ($252 billion at last count), which is 8.7% is held by foriegn investors. The rest is held within the US.
Now here's the rub. Some of those bonds are held by single investors, but the majority are held by large investment pools, such as mutual funds, or banks. Large banks will trade these bonds overnight (although they usually trade short papers, of the 30 day variety) to eek out a fraction of a basis point on overnight holdings. The key point here is that the US does not owe the rest of the world $7TT(US), it owes itself that.
As a matter of fact, the website you provided is more than happy to show you that 22.7% is foriegn debt, which amounts to $1.6TT(US). With 2003 US tax revenue at $13.4TT(US), I'd say it's not much to worry about.
This is just research I remember as a quantitative analyst (what the mutual fund company I worked for titles people who they want to write software, but not be in the IT department). The average inflation rate for college tuition over the last 50ish years is 7%. If tuition was $1,200 in 1991, then this year it would be $2,891, and in 2005, $3,094.
Sounds like that school is on par with the average, actually. We've got three kids entering college in 2007, 2010, and 2012.... anybody got any spare change?
I have both a degree and 13 years of professional experience as a software developer/engineer/architect/analyst. One thing I can easily say is I learned much more about the above mentioned topics in my 13 years of experience than I learned in the classroom.
That's not to say that 4 years (these days more like 5-6) of school isn't beneficial. However, the majority of good developers (mind you, I've worked with countless not-so-good developers) were the ones that learned on the job. Typically, they were all open to suggestion, researching the best option, and trial and error. Those are key in a successful development career, as the envoronment and technology are both constantly changing.
You should try reading the Canadian law regarding copyright. Just in case you don't feel like linking...
18. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the maker of a sound recording has a copyright in the sound recording, consisting of the sole right to do the following in relation to the sound recording or any substantial part thereof:
I haven't seen any precedence yet for forcing people with older vehicles to comply with modern laws. A great example of that not happening is vehicle inspection in Harris County (Houston), Texas. Vehicles older than 1976 do not have to have the emissions tested as part of the inspection because vehicles typically didn't have smog pumps before then. Nobody is making people with a 72 Dodge Dart add a smog pump.
You're right about the reporting. To add to that, companies typically "invest" the up front money (in reality they spend it but it stays on the books in future recievables... then the company just pays itself) either in itself or in something that provides a return. If NetSol wasn't run by MBA's who don't seem to have a clue about long term funds, they would probably wind up coming out ahead by holding the funds in a t-bill or at least short term cash fund, yielding slightly higher then the CPI.
The greatest benefit I've found out of the Monster networking service is finding people that I used to work with. As large as Monster is, I've found a good number of people I've already F2Fed with and sort of have them in my regular network now.
Recently, our 10 year old tore a pretty big hole in his knee playing basketball. It was pretty funny because his mother told him (while cutting off the remaining damaged skin) "Ok, if you need to cuss, you can do it now." He didn't, but we do the same thing with our kids. Sometimes, swearing is appropriate, but usually not. My problem with the Sopranos (and I'm a hypocrite... she and I watch it) is the profanity is ALL OVER every conversation, and I think it's a bit much for our 8 and 10 year olds. Our 14 year old can watch it with us, but she hates the show anyway.
I certainly don't believe in hiding the reality of the world from our children, but I do think they can only handle so much at certain ages. Maybe I'm a even little overprotective in saying that, but they come along, and we typically beat them to it before the questions start.
A follow up quote from one of the worst actors of our time (although I liked him in the Matrix... lack of emotion was perfect for that role) Keanu Reeves in Parenthood....
You have to have a license to drive a car, you even have to have a license to own a pet, but any asshole can have a child.
Well, I paraphrased. We have a 14 year old, a 10 year old, and an 8 year old. Only the 8 year old's parents seem to be concerned with who will be where their child is visiting, what time they'll be home, how to reach them, and want to meet the other parents... things we agree with. The 14 year old's friends' parents are the worst. They like to send them off to the mall with $100 where they are for hours on end with no questions whatsoever. It's appaling what they consider parenting skills. She seems to actually appreciate the fact that we're concerned about her wherabouts, and want to "chaperone" sometimes, not to mention have conversations with her.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, my sister-in-law just went into teaching last year (math as well). She was an office manager for 3 years after college. She took 3 classes to meet her requirements, taught with an observer for one semester, and is now a teacher in the Houston area (though not in HISD).
Her description of the reason for the observer was so they could determine, outside of testing her, that she knew the material well, and could apply that material in a classroom in reaching children.
I'd never suggest I could go from an office/cubicle/small desk in the tech lab to a classroom without any effort at all on my part, but wouldn't that small effort be worth it? I'm sure not everyone is cut out to teach children, or may have a hard time relating what they've learned in a classroom. That's what the certification and observation would attempt to prove/disprove, and to me, it's a small price to pay to make sure our children are getting the most out of their education.
A point I think the article misses on, and a fairly important one, is the current education system in the US. While problem solving (vs. memorization) is still the focus of education here, it's not as enforced as it was in the past.
I have family in several states in education and most agree that we're turning out fewer problem solvers than in the past. None seems to have a solution, outside of parenting (or lack thereof), which I think is the leading killer of a solid education.
What used to draw innovators from other countries was the freedom and opportunity found in the US. Both of those seem to be dwindling. Where does that leave us?
I think we're also in for a lull in innovation in the US, which is scarier to me than the trend in offshore outsourcing. I've been a professional developer for 13 years. Although I haven't been affected yet, I have to assume it will affect me sometime (hopefully later than sooner).
With three children, I am the math and science homework helper in the house. What I find is my children are taught tricks and workarounds rather than an understanding of the fundamental math problems. I'm glad to help my children, and love seeing the light go off in their head when they actually understand the problems they work on. So I have this idea. When I "retire" from development (forced or otherwise) I'm going to become a math teacher, preferably at the middle school ages. I've worked in math my whole career, and have had a wonderful experience with my own children (I know, teaching 25 kids is completely different). I think if more people were to go into teaching towards the end of their career, and in a field that matches their respective career, we would be turning out more innovators and maybe worry less about the future of the working world in the US.
What was that phrase again "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"?
No, no, no, it's "People in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones."
They just copied the works, got caught infringing on the copyrights, and settled with the publisher by paying them off -- as to avoid a lawsuit.
Seems SCO is doing in this case what they want the world to do in the case of Linux. Just pay them off and shut up about it.
Admittedly, I have heard that sellers sometimes have problems with PayPal. They do, however, have the option to not use them. There are quite a few payment options, and a few other proxy websites out there for handling credit card payments. If PayPal continues to be a problem for sellers, I'm sure their business will shrink.
Nowhere in my comment did I say anything like "that's a lie, PayPal rocks." I just related a story as a buyer that uses PayPal.
Here's the kicker. Sellers don't have to use PayPal as an option. If a seller has a bad experience with them, they have the ability to never use them again. Personally, I don't care what the payment option is, other than carrier pigeon.
As a footnote, I think 2 years of solid use is a good set of iterations, statistically speaking. Explain to me how PayPal steals from a minority of buyers?
I still can't establish if folk really are having trouble with paypal
I have used paypal for about 2 years now. I had one bad eBay transaction where the seller took the payment, then disappeared. Their e-mail address bounced, their number was disconnected, etc... Paypal "investigated" for less than two weeks, then gave me a full refund.
My father's paypal account was hacked by someone in Lithuania, who ordered a Raider's jacket. He was also given a full refund by paypal (turns out he was using a weak password).
I'd say given my experience with paypal that they're far from fraudulous, and will continue to use them. Much like eBay, their service beats the alternative by leaps and bounds.
Days off? What are those? I keep hearing people using terms like "vacation" and "sick days" but I've been a contract programmer for 9 years, and seem to have forgotten what those terms mean.
I know, I know, STFW.
When Enron crashed, I thought it would be funny to buy 100 shares or so, request the actual paper share, and wallpaper my bathroom with them. Seems getting shares printed would cost $25, rendering both Enron and SCO's stock worth less than the paper it's printed on.
It would be interesting to see how it played out in court. IANAL, nor is my fiance (who is a police officer). I do, however, have a friend whose wife is a prosecutor, and I'll have to ask about this one.
However, Having had the opportunity to sit through quite a few cases when my fiance was also a bailiff, one phrase that stuck out was "any reasonable person." The judge used it quite frequently in handing out decisions.
One case in particular reminds me of this one a bit. A man saw a bicycle sitting behind a building, and claims to have seen it there for days. He decided it was abandoned and took it. A couple of days later, the owner saw him on it and called the police, who promptly arrested the man. He told his story and the judge handed the verdict quickly. The judge told this man that "any reasonable person" would have known that this bicycle had to be owned by someone, regardless of how long it sat there, and taking it would be theft, which is the decision that was handed down.
That does differ from this in that it's theft vs. copyright violation, and I've never seen copyright law in court. I still contend that "any reasonable person" should know that the movie isn't free, and that downloading it would be illegal. Maybe we'll just have to leave it as "we're not completely sure, but it would be interesting to see how it plays out."
How's that?
I'm glad you enjoy a good arguement, because I do too (I hope this is a good one overall).
You still haven't touched on the point I was trying to make, and maybe I didn't make it clearly. Walking Tall is a movie, and most people realize that it is. Wether it be from 1973, 1981, or 2004, it's a movie. Reasonable people realize that movies are not free, and even the crappy one's cost $4.99 in the Walman Marcus cheapo bin. That being said, no reasonable person should believe that a movie that's been released three times is something made with a school camera in some kid's living room with a fake light saber. If you're downloading a movie and don't know for a fact that it's freely distributable, then a good assumption is that it's not free, and some law is being broken.
That differs from the Madonna story in that you knew that it was freely distributable. You said yourself she authorized it's release. What that tells me is that you also know that if she had not authorized it's release, then it would not be freely distributable, and downloading it would cause some law to be broken.
what is Bill Gates interested in a drug making/researching company for?
For the same reason Martha Stewart was interested in ImClone. Drug companies have huge potential in share price gain as they tend to copyright everything, and sell at huge margins... provided, of course, their product gets past the FDA.
Remember, it was Bill Gates the person that bought the stock and got fined, not Micro$oft.
That's "assuming" there were any contracts in the first place.
Historically, "Your honor, he showed me the contract that stated he owned the Brooklyn Bridge" hasn't worked either. And one would have a very difficult time convincing a judge that they assumed a person had a valid contract to distribute freely a movie that is currently in theaters.
I don't understand what distribution contracts there are for every movie ever made, nor am I required to by law.
So ignorance of the law really is a good excuse? Dang those 50's cop movies!!!
Actually, most of the stories I've read show that the R&D is not (yet) leaving the shores here in the US. Typically, the education system in the US is based on problem solving, while in India and China it's based on memorization. I'm not going to try to argue which is better, because only time will tell.
I can say I have experience with this. I've worked with 2 distributed development teams, and the guys on the other end of the line could code at warp speed as long as they had clearly defined specs. However, when a problem arose in the design/architecture, the US team was always the one to solve it. Once the problem was solved, the coding was fast and furious again.
Just my $0.02.
America owes the rest of the world something on the order of $7,159,918,958,491.16
Yet one more uninformed person about how the national debt works in the US, so let me help you with the figures.
Of that amount, 40.6% (according to the website) is debt to the US Treasury. That debt is help in the form of US Bonds, of the 10, 20, and 30 year variety. A small portion ($252 billion at last count), which is 8.7% is held by foriegn investors. The rest is held within the US.
Now here's the rub. Some of those bonds are held by single investors, but the majority are held by large investment pools, such as mutual funds, or banks. Large banks will trade these bonds overnight (although they usually trade short papers, of the 30 day variety) to eek out a fraction of a basis point on overnight holdings. The key point here is that the US does not owe the rest of the world $7TT(US), it owes itself that.
As a matter of fact, the website you provided is more than happy to show you that 22.7% is foriegn debt, which amounts to $1.6TT(US). With 2003 US tax revenue at $13.4TT(US), I'd say it's not much to worry about.
This is just research I remember as a quantitative analyst (what the mutual fund company I worked for titles people who they want to write software, but not be in the IT department). The average inflation rate for college tuition over the last 50ish years is 7%. If tuition was $1,200 in 1991, then this year it would be $2,891, and in 2005, $3,094.
Sounds like that school is on par with the average, actually. We've got three kids entering college in 2007, 2010, and 2012.... anybody got any spare change?
increased flexibility, better resistance to change, better memory management, faster processing
I have both a degree and 13 years of professional experience as a software developer/engineer/architect/analyst. One thing I can easily say is I learned much more about the above mentioned topics in my 13 years of experience than I learned in the classroom.
That's not to say that 4 years (these days more like 5-6) of school isn't beneficial. However, the majority of good developers (mind you, I've worked with countless not-so-good developers) were the ones that learned on the job. Typically, they were all open to suggestion, researching the best option, and trial and error. Those are key in a successful development career, as the envoronment and technology are both constantly changing.
You should try reading the Canadian law regarding copyright. Just in case you don't feel like linking...
18. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the maker of a sound recording has a copyright in the sound recording, consisting of the sole right to do the following in relation to the sound recording or any substantial part thereof:
(a) to publish it for the first time,
(b) to reproduce it in any material form, and
(c) to rent it out,
and to authorize any such acts.
That percentage just got quite a bit smaller...
I haven't seen any precedence yet for forcing people with older vehicles to comply with modern laws. A great example of that not happening is vehicle inspection in Harris County (Houston), Texas. Vehicles older than 1976 do not have to have the emissions tested as part of the inspection because vehicles typically didn't have smog pumps before then. Nobody is making people with a 72 Dodge Dart add a smog pump.
it's the kind of thing that can allow an idiot to end up teaching programming in a college...
Funny... I've never heard it put that way. I actually dribbled a little coffee when I laughed out loud.
You're right about the reporting. To add to that, companies typically "invest" the up front money (in reality they spend it but it stays on the books in future recievables... then the company just pays itself) either in itself or in something that provides a return. If NetSol wasn't run by MBA's who don't seem to have a clue about long term funds, they would probably wind up coming out ahead by holding the funds in a t-bill or at least short term cash fund, yielding slightly higher then the CPI.
The greatest benefit I've found out of the Monster networking service is finding people that I used to work with. As large as Monster is, I've found a good number of people I've already F2Fed with and sort of have them in my regular network now.
Recently, our 10 year old tore a pretty big hole in his knee playing basketball. It was pretty funny because his mother told him (while cutting off the remaining damaged skin) "Ok, if you need to cuss, you can do it now." He didn't, but we do the same thing with our kids. Sometimes, swearing is appropriate, but usually not. My problem with the Sopranos (and I'm a hypocrite... she and I watch it) is the profanity is ALL OVER every conversation, and I think it's a bit much for our 8 and 10 year olds. Our 14 year old can watch it with us, but she hates the show anyway.
I certainly don't believe in hiding the reality of the world from our children, but I do think they can only handle so much at certain ages. Maybe I'm a even little overprotective in saying that, but they come along, and we typically beat them to it before the questions start.
A follow up quote from one of the worst actors of our time (although I liked him in the Matrix... lack of emotion was perfect for that role) Keanu Reeves in Parenthood....
You have to have a license to drive a car, you even have to have a license to own a pet, but any asshole can have a child.
Well, I paraphrased. We have a 14 year old, a 10 year old, and an 8 year old. Only the 8 year old's parents seem to be concerned with who will be where their child is visiting, what time they'll be home, how to reach them, and want to meet the other parents... things we agree with. The 14 year old's friends' parents are the worst. They like to send them off to the mall with $100 where they are for hours on end with no questions whatsoever. It's appaling what they consider parenting skills. She seems to actually appreciate the fact that we're concerned about her wherabouts, and want to "chaperone" sometimes, not to mention have conversations with her.