Ever heard of a screen reader? Way to display your ignorance; how you ever got a default rating of 2 is beyond me...
Yes I've heard of a screen reader, but how that really helps someone do any real web surfing is beyond me. It seems to me that with ALT tags on the relevant buttons then the web site is as accesible to the blind as it's going to get. They can't expect people not to use images or movies or anything visual just because they can't see it. They already have the capacity to read pure text, what more do they want?!
I think this is a good thing. There are too many websites which are totally unusable by the blind. It doesn't take a lot of effort to make a site usable by everyone, and as a bonus, it also makes it usable on palmtops and the main desktop browsers have a more pleasurable experience (Don't know what that icon is over there, mouse over it, and get a popup help)
Find me a blind person who can read a popup help box then. Alt tags for pictures is good and all, but I fail to see how this is going to help some blind guy navigate the web. It's inherently not for use by people who can not experience visual media. The web IS visual media. Period.
Record it?! What the hell are blind people doing on the net anyways!?!? I guess they MIGHT have someone or something reading the websites to them, if it's a person that person can take care of the clicking and what not. If it's a program then what are we supposed to do about it? How exactly do you make a non-physical, text medium accesible to a blind person?! There is no sound on the web, you can't touch it, taste it, or smell it. How exactly do they propose that this be done?
Last year, my brother wrote a story for his teacher in which he changed the names of the teacher and his own into pig latin ( how clever! ) and detailed a story in which he shot the teacher. Soon thereafter, he also threatened the lives of my parents, and the principal of the school. Was he the product of a school system that excluded him based on his "difference" from the others?
Ahhh, there is the crucial distinction though! This child did not threaten anyone. His teacher requested that he write a SCARY Story. Apparently he drew from past experience and decided that a couple of people getting high and shooting their schoolmates was pretty scary. If he was writing from the point of a drugged up murder then the story reads MUCH MUCH better than if you look at it as being written by a 7th grade student. If I were requested to write such a story mine would have proper spelling and grammer, would be five or six pages, and would contain essentially the same theme. This is not a disturbed child. This is an observant child who knows what is frightening about real life and can express it in a rudimentary manner. What he needs is not counseling or jail time, what he needs is a creative writing class.
Kintanon
PS. I did write Short Stories in 6-8th grades, and they were well written, somewhat juvenile, science fiction stories that I am still proud of and file with my high school poetry. Some of the poetry is readable, some of it is crap, and 2 of them have gone to the finals in poetry contests.
Yes, smaller may be better for Place and Route, but what about the REALLY important stuff like - timing. (ok, the guy does P&R for a living, begin your rant). I'll argue that there are more time critical hardware designs than size critical hardware designs, but correct me if I'm wrong. Faster is better than smaller.
For the most part Smaller IS Faster. If the gate only has to travel 10000th of the distance in the nano-processor as opposed to the Silicon one, then it can move 1000 times slower and still be 10 times faster. And if it moves at the same speed, then it's 10000 times faster. Distance, Time, and Speed are directly linked. Changing one can change the others.
The next target of the geek community may be bio-technology, or it may be agriculture, or it may be something noone around today ever even thought of. But the way I see it, there is always a single place where the intelligencia go, and the second-raters will always be everywhere else. The geek world is like an antibody. It attacks a problem as it comes up, and doesn't let go until its solved. Soon we will see a new problem, and all pounce on it, leaving the internet in a precarious balance with only the second-raters taking it over.
This is partly true, but it seems the second raters tend to come in, take what the innovators developed, and slowly stabilize and refine it. As an example, look at Manufacturing or Farming, they are Old Tech, but in their day they attracted the best and brightest. Once we had the big picture and the process down we moved on to let the second string pick it up and refine it. Now Manufactoring is ungodly efficient and 3% of the population feeds the other 97% with plenty to spare. As we leave the giant conglomoration of New Tech behind for the latest shiny toy the less flighty, less easily bored members of our society pick up our innovations and finish up the projects we started. All we do is take care of the hard/interesting part. We never REALLY finish anything. Our entire Geek Society has ADD.>:)
To be brutally frank with you kintanon, i really couldn't give a flying f**k who is interested in the trivial minutae of my life. there are plenty more meaningful things in this world to be bothered about.
Oh, well in that case, mind if I install a couple of cameras in your house? I'm sure you won't mind me analyzing the trivial minutae of your life in order to make sure we can properly advertise the correct brand of toilet paper, condoms, bed sheets, shampoo, orange juice, toasters, etc... Just imagine, one day a Light Bulb blows in your house and we already have a salesman on your doorstep with your preferred brand, plus 3 behind him offering competing brands. Wouldn't that be GREAT?!
I personally don't think it's anyone elses business what I choose to listen to on MY computer in MY free time. Which is why I don't use RealJukebox.
really, so what? i wish slashdot would stop banging on about this. IMO if you have a "right" to view information on someones web page, the owners have a "right" to maintain a profile of visitors and visitors haibits.
anyone who visits a "jukebox" site and thinks that his/her listening habits is being not being monitored is naive. i mean, what happens when you listen to a real jukebox?
if you dont want your privacy "violated" then dont browse the net, shop, venture outside your house or pretty much anything.
Do you even know what RealJukebox is? It's a program that works like WinAmp and other Mp3/CD playing programs, except that it sends the information about what you are listening to on your computer to the marketroids at the REALnetwork or wherever. Do you REALLY think it's any of their business what you are listening to?
Cable modems only provide the given bandwidth up to a certain point. You've basically got XXX megabits per second up to the first router. After that its shared bandwidth. I'm not sure about DSL.
That is TOO true! I was checking the routers along my path to an FTP site the other day and it turns out that the first router on my @home loops is so overloaded it can barely move between 4pm and midnight!!! They need to do something to alleviate some of that congestion! It's like having a 28.8 modem during those hours! Good thing I do most of my surfing after those hours...>:)
How is your stereotyping of all schools based on your personal experiences in any way different than someone saying "The violent kids today all play Doom, therefore all Doom players must be violent!"? You are saying "My school forced me to do shitty things that I didn't like..therefore all schools will do the same thing." Both of these statements are taking a single data point (or a very small subset of data) and extrapolating them to the world at large. Both of these statements are patently and unequivocably wrong.
I agree, you had 5 intelligent points to your original post, then you blew it with the speculation. Just because you are bitter doesn't excuse you from being called to the carpet on the exact same thing (stereotyping/profiling) that this thread seems to be up in arms about.
I kind of expected the bitterness to be apparent and taken for what it was, my bitter raving about the school that opressed me. But, if you read through all of those hellmouth stories you'll see that my subset isn't all that small...
Of course not. I said my self that the guards would only be there the deter criminals, ie. those who would start fights, bring guns, threaten, rape, etc. There is a very well defined line between being a criminal and just being different and I'm saying that the guards would not be allowed to cross that line and police those who are just being different. So what if the parents and teachers decide that a pierced eyebrow is bad? That's up to the schools, it's a school policy. The guard is there to deter any violent or criminal act, nothing more. If a teacher asked a guard to watch a particular student or for a particular habit (such as an eyebrow ring), the guard should tell the teacher it's not the guard's job.
So, it's not the guards job to keep an eye on 'potentially dangerous' people, But they are supposed to somehow deter violence by standing in the hallway? Well, what if the Teacher goes to the administration and the follow scenario plays out... Teacher: Little Johnny has pierced his eyebrow and is wearing a Korn t-shirt, I think he may have dangerous tendencies, can we check him with Mosaic? Principal: Well, if you think he's dangerous I guess we can. Principal and Teacher go to terminal and fire up Mosaic. Question 1: Student engages in self mutilation: (yes/no) Principal: Well, an euyebrow ring is certainly self mutilation. Yes. Question 2: Student is exposed to excessive violence in the home. Principal: Well, Korn has very violent music, and I'm sure he listens to it at home. Yes. Question 3: Student is Anti-Social. Teacher: Well, he does tend to eat alone, and stay by himself a lot. And he doesn't talk to anyone in class. Principal: Ok, well, that's a yes. Mosaic: Student is at high risk for violent behavior.
Principal: We'd better have the security guards keep an eye on him in case he brings a gun to school.
Security Guard: Sorry sir, it's not my job to watch specific kids, I'm just here in case something happens.
Principal: Right, well according to the computer program Little Johnny is the person it is most likely going to come from. So you should watch him when he's around to be sure you're prepared.
Guard: Ok, well, that makes sense. I'll keep an eye on him.
Everything makes sense, they are doing it from all the right reasons. But it's still WRONG, VERY WRONG. What if the student brings a screwdriver to school for his tech class, the guard is watching him, he pulls the screw driver out near at his locker to take it to class and gets arrested for trying to stab the kid next to him. The security guard 'Saw' him try it. Kids life is ruined because he has a weapons violation and expulsion on his permanent record. Stuff like that happens today without Mosaic, Mosaic will just make it easier to convince the Guards that it IS their job to be a nanny.
Why'd you have to ruin an otherwise good post with uninformed speculation like this?
Spend a few weeks in my old high school. Maybe you'll understand my bitterness then. Our assistant principle was the former Agriculture teacher (Farming, yay...) I refused to memorize the political creed of an organization called the Future Farmers of America, because I wasn't a member of the organization. For that I was failed in his class and he continued to single me out throughout my high school career. Of course, I brought it on myself by believe the course description of a class called AgriSciTech. I thought it would have to do with geneticly enhanced plants, and things like that. Instead we memorized the parts of a cow, pig, etc... Worst waste of time in my life. Schools do NOT like to lose their funding, the government funds the schools, the schools do what the government says. The government responds to the loudest voices. If the loudest voices say 'We are helpless, we need you to step in and make our decisions for us' then that's what will happen, everywhere.
It sounds like you're suggesting these armed guards would be "moral crusaders". I'm not suggesting that at all. What I meant by "naughty" is violence, plain and simple. The guards would be there to stop fights, or in an absolute worst case scenario, react to a gun being drawn. They're not there to determine if a South Park shirt is appropriate, or, as you say, piercing your eyebrow is appropriate. In fact, if they start harrassing a student without provocation, I think the guard should be reprimanded. This moral crusading should be left with the teachers and, more appropriately, the parents.
So if the Parents and Teachers decide that having a pierced eyebrow is indicitive of possible violent tendencies, and instruct the security guards to keep close scrutiny on those children who do have pierced eyebrows, you would be ok with that? 'Moral Crusading' is by definition ludicrous when applied to anything short of Violence. Everyone can agree that attacking someone is bad, threatening them is also bad, rape is bad. But it never stops there, and if you think it will then you are naive and idealistic.
Kintanon Police Yourself! Fight Back Against Militaristic School Regimes!!
Getting back to the guards in schools thing, I don't see how guards impinge on freedom or "prepare students for a police state" as a previous poster said. Are the armed guards really as autonumous as you're suggesting? I'm sure the guards don't have enough power to do whatever they want to whomever they want, do they? Students would complain and then parents would complain if the guards went too far. I see guards in schools as a deterent to anyone thinking of trying something really naughty, not as a tool of big brother to bring the kids down. We have police all around our communities, do you think we live in a police state in our towns? What's wrong with expanding that protection to our schools?
Yes, I do think we are creeping towards a police state where the cops have far too much freedom to accuse and arrest anyone for any reason. Who defines what is 'Naughty'? Is holding a rally against some of the schools rules 'Naughty'? Is Refusing to participate in a pep Rally 'Naughty'? Refusing to say the pledge? Wearing black trench coats and piercing your eyebrows? This is not the business of the school or the security guards to decide.
Where did you get statistics comparing the rates of violence and murder in an inner city high school versus a white, middle class home with two parents and no guns?
Or are you comparing all schools (including placid suburban schools) and all households (including those with single parents, guns, substance abuse, etc).
All of both. Because you can warp statistics to justify anything, so just to be safe, you should do whatever the government tells you is a good idea, eh?
If several times a week there were fights and violence in my house and a murder every few years, and I didn't want to get caught up in that, yeah, I might consider armed guards in my house.
Statistically your home is far more likely to be the site of a fight or murder than your childs school. IT hasn't happened yet, just as the people being tested have not YET done anything violent. But it MIGHT, so shouldn't you let the government put armed guards in your house JUST IN CASE?
I believe it should be a scool's responsibility to sponser extra-curricular activities. This includes sports. Would you suggest the schools also stop supporting theatre and putting on school plays? A lot of money goes into this extra-curricular activity as well.
I bitched and moaned in high school and college about how the football and basketball teams got the royal treatment as well. But I am now able to see around that. Football and basketball are simply the nation's most popular sports. By fostering good teams, schools increase more than just ticket sales. The whole school benefits from this notoriety.
I wish to peanuts that other sports were more popular however... but that is the way it is right now.
yes, I do think they should not be putting on plays. An elective theatre class would acceptable, which was a regular class and where everyone brought their own materials for set design and such. And if they wanted to have a play, free of charge, then that would be fine too. I don't mind Phys Ed as a class. If we have Phys Ed, why do we need football?? Oh, and many counties in Georgia have seperate Arts programs like ARTS Oglethorpe (my county) which put on plays and are funded by the community.
I agree with most of your points, but think you need to forego a little of your animosity... did someone lose a girlfriend, or get beaten up a few times?:)
Sports is not the antichrist here... and yes, football IS a sport. As little as I personally value it, that sport brings in a lot of money for the highschool... money that is also funneled into educational projects and clubs.
Playing a sport in highschool is just as valuable to a student as joining an academic club, national honors society or any other extra-curricular activity. You learn a lot of things while involved in a sport... including, but not limited to:
Organizational skills Teamwork Strategy Elation and Disapointment Interaction on Many Different Levels Discipline
These experiences and skills prove highly valuable in college and when entering the work force... no matter what field your interest lies with.
Sorry to bring back unpleasant memories.
I have nothing against sports, I wrestled in high school, I enjoy watching football and baseball, I like playing soccer, I hold a first degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. HOWEVER none of that should be state sponsored school administered activity. It should be a seperate thing, ie the REC Department that most counties have.
In my high school the football team was allowed to have as many fund raising events as it chose, as well as getting money from ticket sales and directly from the school. Every year the team got new uniforms, new pads, new shoes, new helmets, new everything. The wrestling team, the baseball team, and the volleyball team got nothing. We brought in money from ticket sales, bu were only allowed to have 1 fund raising event per year. Other sports got shafted for football. NONE of these sports should be school sponsored activities. They should all be overseen by the Recreational department which is funded by the parents of the kids playing the sports and the ticket sales for the games.
OK, I have to do this to clear up some obvious misconceptions concerning Mosaic 2000. Most of this IS redundant, but it has been scattered through the thread and ignored. Hopefully when it is put into one post together more people will read it and realize it.
1. Students DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS regarding Mosaic. The Administrators answer questions regarding known behavior and then program gives suggestions for how best to approach the person in questions.
2. Mosaic CAN NOT do anything on its own. All of the input and output will be determined by the same old biased administrators as far as Who to do things to. Mosaic just legitmizes that and tells them How to do what they would be doing anyways.
3. There is NO WAY to refuse to participate in this except by removing yourself from a school where it is present.
4. You CAN NOT fool this program without massively altering your exterior personality because you have no direct contact with the program.
5. This WILL be abused by the school system to stop parents from protesting their blatant formation of a militaristic regime.
6. The best way to stop this is to have your parents get in touch with some lawyers as soon as it gets implemented in the school system and GET A COPY of the program. Then make sure you ask the administrators what answers they gave to the questions asked, do it yourself and see what it comes up with. Also, check their answers since we know they don't know jack.
Hopefully this will stop a lot of people from screaming 'LIE TO THE TEST!' and whatnot.
It's been a few years since i dropped out of school, but i DISTINCTLY remember having to sign a quite large pamphlet the first week of each school year that pretty much revoked all 10 of the bill of rights.
It was so enforced that if you didn't bring the pamphlet in the first week, you were automatically suspended until you did. Sound like horseshit?? Welcome to my highschool.. and MANY all around the country.
Aaahhh, the dreaded 'Student Handbook' did you remember to read the fine print on the last page where it says 'I swear to indemnify and release from all responsibility this establishment for any harm which may result of my presence on the premises of said establishment' ? I refused to sign the handbook, they threatened suspension, I laughed and brought in 3 lawyers (The wonders of having a mother in the legal business) bye bye freedom destroying student handbook clauses. This was only one of the many protests I engaged in throughout highschool, following a grand family tradition. My father protested the conduct of one of the principals so well that he (the principal) was fired. It IS possible to make a difference, provided you have more money and more lawyers than the school. Of course you then get harassed by the administration and any time someone beats you shitless in a 2v1 fight you get suspended and they don't.... but those are the breaks, eh?
List 10 practical steps that a school could take to guard against this violence.
1. Teachers and Administrators must listen to complaints from harassed children and ACT ON THEM.
2. Teachers and Administrators must realize that not all students learn the same way and allow for intellectual differences, preferably by seperate, merit based classes.
3. No Dress Code. No stupid pointless meaningless rules about not chewing gum in class.
4. Pay the teachers 2x what they are getting now.
5. In order to perform #2, remove the football program from the school and instead funnel all of that money to the teachers.
6. Do not give special treatment to students based on sports.
7. Return to a institution of LEARNING instead of socializing and playing football.
8. Allow free discussion of relevant topics in the classroom. Less lecture, more learning.
9. Allow Teachers to have more personal contact with the students. Stop making the students switch teachers every class period, the subjects covered in high school are not so in depth that 1 person can not become profficient at all of them.
10. Evaluate disciplinary issues on a case by case bases. Do not suspend all parties involved in a fight if 5 guys attack 1 guy and hospitalize him. Only suspend the 5 that deserve it. Instigate police proceedings against violent offenders such as the above example.
I think these 10 points would EASILY reduce violence in school as well as raising the quality of our schools. But they MUST be instituted from kindergarten up to 12th grade. Not just in high school. We need to go back to educating our children instead of feeding them crap so they can regurgitate it for a test and forget it immediately afterwards.
how about math? its so hard... the new chapter.. opn adding fractions.. i don't get fractions.. whats 1/2+1/3?
It's 5/6ths you dipshit, now get the fuck off the thread. If you wanna talk about your homework take it to e-mail, or a telephone, or ICQ, or AIM, or IRC, or anywhere else that we don't have to see it.
Web site containing sensitive information defaced (most sites do contain sensitive information, cc numbers, product orders, payroll blah blah..). Are you just going to accep the crackers word that nothing was altered???
What kind of bloody fucking moron keeps CC#s, etc.. on the same machine as their website?!?!?! I work for a major US Check Printing company, we have more CC#s and account information than any non-bank entity in the country. NONE of it has any remote link to anything connected to the net. It's ALL kept on seperate internal databases. You could hack EVERY machine that is connected to the net here and you'd come away with the financial status of the company and the stats on the latest in house programming project. All of which are backed up at least weekly. In conclusion, you have to be a fucking MORON to keep sensitive info on a webserver....
Or is this a variation the vaguely D&D books that were once popular in evangelical christianity which had angels winning only through the prayer power of the saints. I remember the demon/angel combat in those books even sounded like D&D, even the descriptions of the demons twisted lizard like appearance and sulferous breath.
The books referred to here are by Frank E. Peretti (spelling is optional.) and the only one I can remember the title to is 'Piercing the Darkness' they are good books. Even for non christians they are entertaining.
Did Jon ever say anyhting that the Christians didn't have the right to produce the game? No. He is just pointing out their hypocrisy (sp?) I don't think he has anything against Christians personally he just points out the flaws they show. The days following Columbine all the Christians say 'Violence is horrible! Its the Internet! We should ban it! No more Quake! No more Doom! Its the devil!' Yet now they come up with this game where its now OK to blow up all these
I've emphasized the massive fallacy in your statement. *I* Am a Christian, I DID NOT blame the internet or anything else other than the sick, twisted demented minds of the kids and the blind stupid parents for columbine. When you are capable of making a rational argument please feel free to do so. But trying to catagorize all Christians as doing anything is sheer stupidity.
Slashdot Mirror
Ever heard of a screen reader? Way to display your ignorance; how you ever got a default rating of 2 is beyond me...
Yes I've heard of a screen reader, but how that really helps someone do any real web surfing is beyond me. It seems to me that with ALT tags on the relevant buttons then the web site is as accesible to the blind as it's going to get. They can't expect people not to use images or movies or anything visual just because they can't see it.
They already have the capacity to read pure text, what more do they want?!
Kintanon
I think this is a good thing. There are too many websites which are totally unusable by the blind. It doesn't take a lot of effort to make a site usable by everyone, and as a bonus, it also makes it usable on palmtops and the main desktop browsers have a more pleasurable experience (Don't know what that icon is over there, mouse over it, and get a popup help)
Find me a blind person who can read a popup help box then. Alt tags for pictures is good and all, but I fail to see how this is going to help some blind guy navigate the web. It's inherently not for use by people who can not experience visual media. The web IS visual media. Period.
Kintanon
Record it?! What the hell are blind people doing on the net anyways!?!? I guess they MIGHT have someone or something reading the websites to them, if it's a person that person can take care of the clicking and what not. If it's a program then what are we supposed to do about it?
How exactly do you make a non-physical, text medium accesible to a blind person?! There is no sound on the web, you can't touch it, taste it, or smell it. How exactly do they propose that this be done?
Kintanon
Last year, my brother wrote a story for his teacher in which he changed the names of the teacher and his own into pig latin ( how clever! ) and detailed a story in which he shot the teacher. Soon thereafter, he also threatened the lives of my parents, and the principal of the school. Was he the product of a school system that excluded him based on his "difference" from the others?
Ahhh, there is the crucial distinction though! This child did not threaten anyone. His teacher requested that he write a SCARY Story. Apparently he drew from past experience and decided that a couple of people getting high and shooting their schoolmates was pretty scary. If he was writing from the point of a drugged up murder then the story reads MUCH MUCH better than if you look at it as being written by a 7th grade student. If I were requested to write such a story mine would have proper spelling and grammer, would be five or six pages, and would contain essentially the same theme. This is not a disturbed child. This is an observant child who knows what is frightening about real life and can express it in a rudimentary manner. What he needs is not counseling or jail time, what he needs is a creative writing class.
Kintanon
PS. I did write Short Stories in 6-8th grades, and they were well written, somewhat juvenile, science fiction stories that I am still proud of and file with my high school poetry. Some of the poetry is readable, some of it is crap, and 2 of them have gone to the finals in poetry contests.
Yes, smaller may be better for Place and Route, but what about the REALLY important stuff like - timing. (ok, the guy does P&R for a living, begin your rant). I'll argue that there are more time critical hardware designs than size critical hardware designs, but correct me if I'm wrong. Faster is better than smaller.
For the most part Smaller IS Faster. If the gate only has to travel 10000th of the distance in the nano-processor as opposed to the Silicon one, then it can move 1000 times slower and still be 10 times faster. And if it moves at the same speed, then it's 10000 times faster. Distance, Time, and Speed are directly linked. Changing one can change the others.
Kintanon
The next target of the geek community may be bio-technology, or it may be agriculture, or it may be something noone around today ever even thought of. But the way I see it, there is always a single place where the intelligencia go, and the second-raters will always be everywhere else.
The geek world is like an antibody. It attacks a problem as it comes up, and doesn't let go until its solved. Soon we will see a new problem, and all pounce on it, leaving the internet in a precarious balance with only the second-raters taking it over.
This is partly true, but it seems the second raters tend to come in, take what the innovators developed, and slowly stabilize and refine it. As an example, look at Manufacturing or Farming, they are Old Tech, but in their day they attracted the best and brightest. Once we had the big picture and the process down we moved on to let the second string pick it up and refine it. Now Manufactoring is ungodly efficient and 3% of the population feeds the other 97% with plenty to spare. As we leave the giant conglomoration of New Tech behind for the latest shiny toy the less flighty, less easily bored members of our society pick up our innovations and finish up the projects we started. All we do is take care of the hard/interesting part. We never REALLY finish anything. Our entire Geek Society has ADD.>:)
Kintanon
To be brutally frank with you kintanon, i really couldn't give a flying f**k who is interested in the trivial minutae of my life. there are plenty more meaningful things in this world to be bothered about.
Oh, well in that case, mind if I install a couple of cameras in your house? I'm sure you won't mind me analyzing the trivial minutae of your life in order to make sure we can properly advertise the correct brand of toilet paper, condoms, bed sheets, shampoo, orange juice, toasters, etc...
Just imagine, one day a Light Bulb blows in your house and we already have a salesman on your doorstep with your preferred brand, plus 3 behind him offering competing brands. Wouldn't that be GREAT?!
I personally don't think it's anyone elses business what I choose to listen to on MY computer in MY free time. Which is why I don't use RealJukebox.
Kintanon
really, so what? i wish slashdot would stop banging on about this. IMO if you have a "right" to view information on someones web page, the owners have a "right" to maintain a profile of visitors and visitors haibits.
anyone who visits a "jukebox" site and thinks that his/her listening habits is being not being monitored is naive. i mean, what happens when you listen to a real jukebox?
if you dont want your privacy "violated" then dont browse the net, shop, venture outside your house or pretty much anything.
Do you even know what RealJukebox is? It's a program that works like WinAmp and other Mp3/CD playing programs, except that it sends the information about what you are listening to on your computer to the marketroids at the REALnetwork or wherever. Do you REALLY think it's any of their business what you are listening to?
Kintanon
Cable modems only provide the given bandwidth up to a certain point. You've basically got XXX megabits per second up to the first router. After that its shared bandwidth. I'm not sure about DSL.
That is TOO true! I was checking the routers along my path to an FTP site the other day and it turns out that the first router on my @home loops is so overloaded it can barely move between 4pm and midnight!!! They need to do something to alleviate some of that congestion! It's like having a 28.8 modem during those hours! Good thing I do most of my surfing after those hours...>:)
Kintanon
How is your stereotyping of all schools based on your personal experiences in any way different than someone saying "The violent kids today all play Doom, therefore all Doom players must be violent!"? You are saying "My school forced me to do shitty things that I didn't like..therefore all schools will do the same thing." Both of these statements are taking a single data point (or a very small subset of data) and extrapolating them to the world at large. Both of these statements are patently and unequivocably wrong.
I agree, you had 5 intelligent points to your original post, then you blew it with the speculation. Just because you are bitter doesn't excuse you from being called to the carpet on the exact same thing (stereotyping/profiling) that this thread seems to be up in arms about.
I kind of expected the bitterness to be apparent and taken for what it was, my bitter raving about the school that opressed me. But, if you read through all of those hellmouth stories you'll see that my subset isn't all that small...
Kintanon
Of course not. I said my self that the guards would only be there the deter criminals, ie. those who would start fights, bring guns, threaten, rape, etc. There is a very well defined line between being a criminal and just being different and I'm saying that the guards would not be allowed to cross that line and police those who are just being different. So what if the parents and teachers decide that a pierced eyebrow is bad? That's up to the schools, it's a school policy. The guard is there to deter any violent or criminal act, nothing more. If a teacher asked a guard to watch a particular student or for a particular habit (such as an eyebrow ring), the guard should tell the teacher it's not the guard's job.
So, it's not the guards job to keep an eye on 'potentially dangerous' people, But they are supposed to somehow deter violence by standing in the hallway? Well, what if the Teacher goes to the administration and the follow scenario plays out...
Teacher: Little Johnny has pierced his eyebrow and is wearing a Korn t-shirt, I think he may have dangerous tendencies, can we check him with Mosaic?
Principal: Well, if you think he's dangerous I guess we can.
Principal and Teacher go to terminal and fire up Mosaic.
Question 1: Student engages in self mutilation: (yes/no)
Principal: Well, an euyebrow ring is certainly self mutilation. Yes.
Question 2: Student is exposed to excessive violence in the home.
Principal: Well, Korn has very violent music, and I'm sure he listens to it at home. Yes.
Question 3: Student is Anti-Social.
Teacher: Well, he does tend to eat alone, and stay by himself a lot. And he doesn't talk to anyone in class.
Principal: Ok, well, that's a yes.
Mosaic: Student is at high risk for violent behavior.
Principal: We'd better have the security guards keep an eye on him in case he brings a gun to school.
Security Guard: Sorry sir, it's not my job to watch specific kids, I'm just here in case something happens.
Principal: Right, well according to the computer program Little Johnny is the person it is most likely going to come from. So you should watch him when he's around to be sure you're prepared.
Guard: Ok, well, that makes sense. I'll keep an eye on him.
Everything makes sense, they are doing it from all the right reasons. But it's still WRONG, VERY WRONG. What if the student brings a screwdriver to school for his tech class, the guard is watching him, he pulls the screw driver out near at his locker to take it to class and gets arrested for trying to stab the kid next to him. The security guard 'Saw' him try it. Kids life is ruined because he has a weapons violation and expulsion on his permanent record. Stuff like that happens today without Mosaic, Mosaic will just make it easier to convince the Guards that it IS their job to be a nanny.
Kintanon
Why'd you have to ruin an otherwise good post with uninformed speculation like this?
Spend a few weeks in my old high school. Maybe you'll understand my bitterness then. Our assistant principle was the former Agriculture teacher (Farming, yay...) I refused to memorize the political creed of an organization called the Future Farmers of America, because I wasn't a member of the organization. For that I was failed in his class and he continued to single me out throughout my high school career. Of course, I brought it on myself by believe the course description of a class called AgriSciTech. I thought it would have to do with geneticly enhanced plants, and things like that. Instead we memorized the parts of a cow, pig, etc... Worst waste of time in my life. Schools do NOT like to lose their funding, the government funds the schools, the schools do what the government says. The government responds to the loudest voices. If the loudest voices say 'We are helpless, we need you to step in and make our decisions for us' then that's what will happen, everywhere.
Kintanon
It sounds like you're suggesting these armed guards would be "moral crusaders". I'm not suggesting that at all. What I meant by "naughty" is violence, plain and simple. The guards would be there to stop fights, or in an absolute worst case scenario, react to a gun being drawn. They're not there to determine if a South Park shirt is appropriate, or, as you say, piercing your eyebrow is appropriate. In fact, if they start harrassing a student without provocation, I think the guard should be reprimanded. This moral crusading should be left with the teachers and, more appropriately, the parents.
So if the Parents and Teachers decide that having a pierced eyebrow is indicitive of possible violent tendencies, and instruct the security guards to keep close scrutiny on those children who do have pierced eyebrows, you would be ok with that? 'Moral Crusading' is by definition ludicrous when applied to anything short of Violence. Everyone can agree that attacking someone is bad, threatening them is also bad, rape is bad. But it never stops there, and if you think it will then you are naive and idealistic.
Kintanon
Police Yourself! Fight Back Against Militaristic School Regimes!!
Getting back to the guards in schools thing, I don't see how guards impinge on freedom or "prepare students for a police state" as a previous poster said. Are the armed guards really as autonumous as you're suggesting? I'm sure the guards don't have enough power to do whatever they want to whomever they want, do they? Students would complain and then parents would complain if the guards went too far. I see guards in schools as a deterent to anyone thinking of trying something really naughty, not as a tool of big brother to bring the kids down. We have police all around our communities, do you think we live in a police state in our towns? What's wrong with expanding that protection to our schools?
Yes, I do think we are creeping towards a police state where the cops have far too much freedom to accuse and arrest anyone for any reason. Who defines what is 'Naughty'? Is holding a rally against some of the schools rules 'Naughty'? Is Refusing to participate in a pep Rally 'Naughty'? Refusing to say the pledge? Wearing black trench coats and piercing your eyebrows? This is not the business of the school or the security guards to decide.
Kintanon
Really?
Where did you get statistics comparing the rates of violence and murder in an inner city high school versus a white, middle class home with two parents and no guns?
Or are you comparing all schools (including placid suburban schools) and all households (including those with single parents, guns, substance abuse, etc).
All of both. Because you can warp statistics to justify anything, so just to be safe, you should do whatever the government tells you is a good idea, eh?
Kintanon
If several times a week there were fights and violence in my house and a murder every few years, and I didn't want to get caught up in that, yeah, I might consider armed guards in my house.
Statistically your home is far more likely to be the site of a fight or murder than your childs school. IT hasn't happened yet, just as the people being tested have not YET done anything violent. But it MIGHT, so shouldn't you let the government put armed guards in your house JUST IN CASE?
Kintanon
I believe it should be a scool's responsibility to sponser extra-curricular activities. This includes sports. Would you suggest the schools also stop supporting theatre and putting on school plays? A lot of money goes into this extra-curricular activity as well.
I bitched and moaned in high school and college about how the football and basketball teams got the royal treatment as well. But I am now able to see around that. Football and basketball are simply the nation's most popular sports. By fostering good teams, schools increase more than just ticket sales. The whole school benefits from this notoriety.
I wish to peanuts that other sports were more popular however... but that is the way it is right now.
yes, I do think they should not be putting on plays. An elective theatre class would acceptable, which was a regular class and where everyone brought their own materials for set design and such. And if they wanted to have a play, free of charge, then that would be fine too.
I don't mind Phys Ed as a class. If we have Phys Ed, why do we need football??
Oh, and many counties in Georgia have seperate Arts programs like ARTS Oglethorpe (my county) which put on plays and are funded by the community.
Kintanon
I agree with most of your points, but think you need to forego a little of your animosity... did someone lose a girlfriend, or get beaten up a few times? :)
Sports is not the antichrist here... and yes, football IS a sport. As little as I personally value it, that sport brings in a lot of money for the highschool... money that is also funneled into educational projects and clubs.
Playing a sport in highschool is just as valuable to a student as joining an academic club, national honors society or any other extra-curricular activity. You learn a lot of things while involved in a sport... including, but not limited to:
Organizational skills
Teamwork
Strategy
Elation and Disapointment
Interaction on Many Different Levels
Discipline
These experiences and skills prove highly valuable in college and when entering the work force... no matter what field your interest lies with.
Sorry to bring back unpleasant memories.
I have nothing against sports, I wrestled in high school, I enjoy watching football and baseball, I like playing soccer, I hold a first degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. HOWEVER none of that should be state sponsored school administered activity. It should be a seperate thing, ie the REC Department that most counties have.
In my high school the football team was allowed to have as many fund raising events as it chose, as well as getting money from ticket sales and directly from the school. Every year the team got new uniforms, new pads, new shoes, new helmets, new everything. The wrestling team, the baseball team, and the volleyball team got nothing. We brought in money from ticket sales, bu were only allowed to have 1 fund raising event per year. Other sports got shafted for football. NONE of these sports should be school sponsored activities. They should all be overseen by the Recreational department which is funded by the parents of the kids playing the sports and the ticket sales for the games.
Kintanon
OK, I have to do this to clear up some obvious misconceptions concerning Mosaic 2000. Most of this IS redundant, but it has been scattered through the thread and ignored. Hopefully when it is put into one post together more people will read it and realize it.
1. Students DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS regarding Mosaic. The Administrators answer questions regarding known behavior and then program gives suggestions for how best to approach the person in questions.
2. Mosaic CAN NOT do anything on its own. All of the input and output will be determined by the same old biased administrators as far as Who to do things to. Mosaic just legitmizes that and tells them How to do what they would be doing anyways.
3. There is NO WAY to refuse to participate in this except by removing yourself from a school where it is present.
4. You CAN NOT fool this program without massively altering your exterior personality because you have no direct contact with the program.
5. This WILL be abused by the school system to stop parents from protesting their blatant formation of a militaristic regime.
6. The best way to stop this is to have your parents get in touch with some lawyers as soon as it gets implemented in the school system and GET A COPY of the program. Then make sure you ask the administrators what answers they gave to the questions asked, do it yourself and see what it comes up with. Also, check their answers since we know they don't know jack.
Hopefully this will stop a lot of people from screaming 'LIE TO THE TEST!' and whatnot.
Kintanon
It's been a few years since i dropped out of school, but i DISTINCTLY remember having to sign a quite large pamphlet the first week of each school year that pretty much revoked all 10 of the bill of rights.
It was so enforced that if you didn't bring the pamphlet in the first week, you were automatically suspended until you did. Sound like horseshit?? Welcome to my highschool.. and MANY all around the country.
Aaahhh, the dreaded 'Student Handbook' did you remember to read the fine print on the last page where it says 'I swear to indemnify and release from all responsibility this establishment for any harm which may result of my presence on the premises of said establishment' ? I refused to sign the handbook, they threatened suspension, I laughed and brought in 3 lawyers (The wonders of having a mother in the legal business) bye bye freedom destroying student handbook clauses.
This was only one of the many protests I engaged in throughout highschool, following a grand family tradition. My father protested the conduct of one of the principals so well that he (the principal) was fired.
It IS possible to make a difference, provided you have more money and more lawyers than the school.
Of course you then get harassed by the administration and any time someone beats you shitless in a 2v1 fight you get suspended and they don't.... but those are the breaks, eh?
Kintanon
List 10 practical steps that a school could take to guard against this violence.
1. Teachers and Administrators must listen to complaints from harassed children and ACT ON THEM.
2. Teachers and Administrators must realize that not all students learn the same way and allow for intellectual differences, preferably by seperate, merit based classes.
3. No Dress Code. No stupid pointless meaningless rules about not chewing gum in class.
4. Pay the teachers 2x what they are getting now.
5. In order to perform #2, remove the football program from the school and instead funnel all of that money to the teachers.
6. Do not give special treatment to students based on sports.
7. Return to a institution of LEARNING instead of socializing and playing football.
8. Allow free discussion of relevant topics in the classroom. Less lecture, more learning.
9. Allow Teachers to have more personal contact with the students. Stop making the students switch teachers every class period, the subjects covered in high school are not so in depth that 1 person can not become profficient at all of them.
10. Evaluate disciplinary issues on a case by case bases. Do not suspend all parties involved in a fight if 5 guys attack 1 guy and hospitalize him. Only suspend the 5 that deserve it. Instigate police proceedings against violent offenders such as the above example.
I think these 10 points would EASILY reduce violence in school as well as raising the quality of our schools. But they MUST be instituted from kindergarten up to 12th grade. Not just in high school. We need to go back to educating our children instead of feeding them crap so they can regurgitate it for a test and forget it immediately afterwards.
Kintanon
how about math?
its so hard... the new chapter.. opn adding fractions.. i don't get fractions..
whats 1/2+1/3?
It's 5/6ths you dipshit, now get the fuck off the thread. If you wanna talk about your homework take it to e-mail, or a telephone, or ICQ, or AIM, or IRC, or anywhere else that we don't have to see it.
Kintanon
Web site containing sensitive information defaced
(most sites do contain sensitive information,
cc numbers, product orders, payroll blah blah..).
Are you just going to accep the crackers word
that nothing was altered???
What kind of bloody fucking moron keeps CC#s, etc.. on the same machine as their website?!?!?!
I work for a major US Check Printing company, we have more CC#s and account information than any non-bank entity in the country. NONE of it has any remote link to anything connected to the net. It's ALL kept on seperate internal databases. You could hack EVERY machine that is connected to the net here and you'd come away with the financial status of the company and the stats on the latest in house programming project. All of which are backed up at least weekly.
In conclusion, you have to be a fucking MORON to keep sensitive info on a webserver....
Kintanon
Or is this a variation the vaguely D&D books that were once popular in evangelical christianity which had angels winning only through the prayer power of the saints. I remember the demon/angel combat in those books even sounded like D&D, even the descriptions of the demons twisted lizard like appearance and sulferous breath.
The books referred to here are by Frank E. Peretti (spelling is optional.) and the only one I can remember the title to is 'Piercing the Darkness' they are good books. Even for non christians they are entertaining.
Kintanon
Did Jon ever say anyhting that the Christians didn't have the right to produce the game? No. He is just pointing out their hypocrisy (sp?) I don't think he has anything against Christians personally he just points out the flaws they show. The days following Columbine all the Christians say 'Violence is horrible! Its the Internet! We should ban it! No more Quake! No more Doom! Its the devil!' Yet now they come up with this game where its now OK to blow up all these
I've emphasized the massive fallacy in your statement. *I* Am a Christian, I DID NOT blame the internet or anything else other than the sick, twisted demented minds of the kids and the blind stupid parents for columbine. When you are capable of making a rational argument please feel free to do so. But trying to catagorize all Christians as doing anything is sheer stupidity.
Kintanon