It's not (primarily) the web designers' fault that they use flashy designs... The people who get the contracts are the ones who have a 500KB Flash animation on every page and poorly coded Javascript rollovers because clients and PHBs see these things and go "Ooo! Shiny!"
Just because they developed a mainline site that uses flash does not mean they cannot make it detect WAP or low resolution displays and adapt accordingly.
You can show off all the glitz and glamour with your 90000KB index.htm and still have a/wap/ with the basic data that everyone needs to see.
Personally? Even if I was on a HSD connection I'd be going to the slimmed down version. Just the facts ma'am.
I don't see this as really being a problem. People don't really browse the internet with handheld devices (phones, PDAs, etc) actually attempting to REPLACE their computer.
Oh right, just because you don't see it as happening means that it isn't, right? Well it is and it should.
Overkill on website design is unncessary. If you want to have that, great, but make sure you spent the little extra time to make sure the data is available for those people that don't have it. You people whine all the time about interoperability on everything else, why not this?
It took me 10 minutes to use Google to figure out how to make a WAP version of a utility I had on the web and make Apache automatically rewrite the URLs for it. It took me 30 minutes of trial and error on Slashdot w/preferences to make the homepage readable easily on my mobile net device.
Mobile web is a luxury that will work only for those who run full operating systems on small devices, and it will work via WiFi, not any of the mobile phone (2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, whatever) networks.
Excuse me? No. It's very useful especially with a device that knows how to interact with sites that aren't specifically designed for it.
As I stated before I would hope that more webdesigners realize the need for customizable content and layout (google news, slashdot, etc) so that people who do use mobile devices can have fast load times and a pleasure using their sites.
It takes 10 minutes to change your site over to be WAP viewable and have Apache rewrite the URLs for you. If only people would take the time...
IMO, broswing website using some silly little contraption is silly. Just view the sites on a regualr computer when it's more convenient. Or, every web designer should use CSS and have a handheld-friendly CSS option.
Or webdesigners can take the time to make websites that have slimmed down versions (text only Google News, Slashdot's lite (or completely customizable version, various sites that offer WAP detection).
I have a little utility that I wrote for geocachers to convert words to numbers via the "dollar word method". A guy I know complained that it wouldn't render on his WAP phone. I spent the 10 minutes using Google to figure out how to write it to work w/WAP and how to get Apache to detect WAP and rewrite the URLs.
Is it really that hard to do? Do we really need Flash and 100k page loads for a simple website?
No, we don't and it's not silly when you are sitting on the bus or train or in the mall waiting for your SO to shop.
Well, from what I've seen, they're going to have just about every feature that FireFox offers (sans css2), was designed with security in mind (they claim), and it comes with the OS. Why would anyone average Joe Schmo user bother turning to something else?
If IE won't support something a good majority of websites won't either thus Joe Blow Computer User won't have any need for CSS2 support.
As I said, I believe this attitude of mine is due in part to my Gen X demographic. Baby boomers and older -- those presumably running XXAA -- grew up not expecting reviewing capability.
The ideals of those running the FooAA have nothing to do with their generation, their upbringing, or anything of the sort. It has to do with money and control.
As long as they can continue to manipulate the public's understanding of fairuse and can continue to sucker the public into buying shit quality recordings that are crippled with DRM then they are happy.
Once they stop making money they will start to realize that it's not in their best interests.
Sadly, people are sheep and believe whatever the latest media hype on TV is. They seriously believe they have no right to "steal" from the FooAA and listen/watch media however they want.
CSUC said it has implemented new security measures. One of them is to issue randomly assigned nine-digit identification numbers to students and staff, in place of Social Security numbers.
I did RTFA and it doesn't say *WHEN* that was implemented. Was it implemented 5 years ago because that's when TFA says that the data was stored from.
If it was implemented then were they not even prompting for SSNs or were they asking for the SSN and then creating a 9 digit ID number from that?
Just because you don't publically display your SSN doesn't mean it's not on file.
Why oh why do people give out their SSNs even when registering for college courses? I work at a college and I went to college. You aren't required to give your SSN and when I register for courses now I certainly don't.
Colleges shouldn't even ask applicants for their SSN. Yeah, it's a real pain in the ass 12 years from now when you try and get your transcripts and you can't remember your student ID. I graduated in 2001 and I remember mine... Maybe I won't in 10 more years but I will know that I can be searched for by name and graduation date.
DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR SSN TO ANYONE. If they ask then politely decline and ask if they will allow another ID number. Every college I know of has a student ID field.
Here we are pushing students to use their student ID instead of their SSNs (a good majority of students give us the wrong SSN anyway).
If the company can have you classed as a contractor, they save mondo money on not paying you benefits. They're saying they did the same work in the same office and effectively get discriminated against.
If you work through Manpower (as the employee the article listed) you do NOT work for HP and regardless of what work you do there you are NOT owed benefits/compensation from them.
You work for Manpower and should be arguing with THEM for better pay and benefits more in line with your current working conditions.
Jennifer Miller of Nampa is one of the plaintiffs. Miller said she was employed by HP in Boise from 1989 to 1995, when she took a severance package and left the company. She returned later in 1995 as a contract worker and worked at HP until March 9. Part of the time she was a contract employee through Veritest and Manpower Professional. Her jobs included testing software for HP printers.
Umm, I have never heard of anything like this before. Temp agencies hire employees, charge the companies their employees work at, and then pay (and give benefits if applicable) to their employees from that.
Since when are you owed money/benefits from a company you really don't directly work for?
ok, when that question gets modded up, it's time to rethink who you are doing interviews with, vs your target demographic.
Reading the AC comment that was modded 4/5 currently about this being the worst interview ever, I have to disagree. We have had some really shitty interviews.
The one "geek chic politician" (I'm too lazy to find the link) was interviewed and I was thrilled to have one of my questions posed to her. She didn't answer much of what I asked and basically treated me like any other politican or magician being called out on one of their slight of words/hands.
This particular question "who the fuck are you, and why do I care?" is actually an interesting one because (strangely enough) I don't remember the original article and I didn't know who this fucking guy was.
Now. While the interviewee's response isn't informative at all it certainly did interest me enough about him to continue reading.
At least he didn't go off on this self-indulgent rant about how great he is, how awesome all his voices are, and who's dick he sucked to get the job (I doubt it was because he could down a pint of beer in 5 seconds or I'd have a job in the cartoon world too).
The jist of it is, is that I smoke too much weed which is bad for my vocal chords. but after every show kids try to smoke me up. Any blue blooded stoner would love this charity, but I've learned to get the bulk of the shows done before I start indulging. This next tour is for a straight month, so I'll be gettin the shaky hands I'm sure. And I'll never lip synch. I'm very serious about performing. and letting people see and hear that I can do these songs live.
At least he believes that charity is more important than self-preservation;)
There was some hype where I lived during the mid to late 80s where kids would drive up and down the streets with cordless phones to pick up on your conversations.
I frequently had issues in the dorms in college with interference from nearby cordless phones. I usually had to change "channels" on the base station several times in order to get out of the range of the people around me.
Please note the "Update:" under the blurb that is linked to from Slashdot...
The phone might not adhere to FCC regulations. If you can't use a FRS radio for more than a couple miles w/o a license why would you be able to use this cordless phone?
Really? Hmm, I figured it was a statement against a worthless policy. Something akin to standing up for what you believe in instead of just bowing your head and handing over your ID.
Visa. I was told that I need to call them and tell them if I am going to be using my credit card in areas that they don't consider my home area.
I make sure to call them and say, "Mom and Dad, I'm going to Foo, FO and I'll be there for 7 days, please don't cut off my money for the week, ok?"
It's annoying but it's far less annoying than the embarassment of having to call the CC company from a pay phone in the restaurant that you were declined because you exceeded their unknown travel border.
Carping and timewasters don't bother me, I'm got a piss-poor customer service attitude already. I've had customer complaints because they didn't like the way I DIDN'T argue with them. What can YOU do?
Walk out and spend my money elsewhere. I don't shop at Cub foods in Eagan, MN because they check IDs and signatures when you use a CC.
When they started the policy I left an entire cart full ($200+) of groceries on the belt and walked out of the store.
Money spends good anywhere. Don't want to make my life easy? I'll take my money somewhere where they do. If only more people would stand up to the bullshit we put up w/on a daily basis this crap would end.
Considering how fast my CC company shut my account off during valid usage patterns I would be surprised if they didn't stop someone from using it while it was stolen.
If you honestly believe that the signature on the backside of a CC stops theft I feel sorry for you.
While I realize that this "article" was meant to be tongue in cheek, I'll say:
Every time you make a credit card purchase, they're supposed to match your signature against the one on the back of your card. Nobody seems to check anymore, so I tried to see how far I could push it with wacky signatures like "Mariah Carey" and "Zeus," which you can read in the original Credit Card Prank.
My signature is basically a W with a line after. I have been told it's "unique". I always reply, "it's fast." Signatures required for credit card purchases are lame. Checking my ID is even worse. I always make sure to be a PITA when they ask for my ID when I pay w/a CC. Paying with plastic is my way around hassle and if they're going to give me one I'm sure to pay them back with some.
I was grocery shopping when I ran into a new type of signature-checking device: the electronic screen. Instead of a flimsy scrap of paper, you now sign your name right into the screen. Finally, I thought, a better way to check our signatures!
For these I usually just put an X through it or a straight line. I always believed that an X was a valid signature. What happens if I'm truly unable to write my signature? I have to sign in that box in order for the signature to take so I do. I've never had a problem with someone questioning it (most are 16 year old kids that just don't give a shit).
Going back to my ID issues w/CC's. My ID has a signature on it (for what reason I have no idea) but in order to get that signature on there you have to be writing for a certain amount of time. I had to write out my entire name (including middle name) in order for it to take. It basically means that the signature on my ID is worthless as I never sign anything like that. Why bother to require it if you aren't going to get a valid signature from me?
If we are basing the validation of the signature to the back of a possibly stolen card don't you think that someone would attempt to at least forge the signature? I would think that would be the case.
The world is ending if people seriously believe that a handwritten signature on the back of a credit card will end theft. Maybe we should all be required to have our signature stored in a national database. That surely will stop the terrorists!
So to answer the question posed in the article title: "Credit card signatures: useless?" I have to answer, completely.
One of the reasons I am the 'compu-whiz' I am today is due to early exposure to computers. I broke them. I deleted things and modified things you weren't supposed to touch. I learned the hard way.
Current Windows versions don't allow for this as much as DOS did and various other OSs do. I knew how to fix a "missing Operating System" error with a sys a: c: or how to give me more memory under 640k to run the latest Sierra game. You don't need that close of a relationship with your computer anymore. People just want it to work.
"My computer is slow. Fix it." They don't care why, how to stop it from happening again, etc. They just want to be able to have it work again.
Having grown up with the prevelant user interface concepts I can get beyond most mazes of menus and get down to using the applications. Older generations have a deeper fear of computers specifically with regard to breaking them.
It's going to repeat again with the next generation for the reason I stated above. Too many people using computers without caring how they work or how to fix them (just like any other piece of tech) and not enough people with the knowhow to fix them.
Corporations still have a hell of a time keeping employees off of Solitaire and Minesweeper. I think this is not a computer problem, but a "bored at work" problem. I can remember my teachers in high school - most of them were the most boring people you would care to meet. A select few would enlighten and invoke interesting discussion and methods to achieve success on the course.
Well, work is called work and not vacation for a reason. Work is not something that is fun and exciting for most people and IMHO it shouldn't be. Work is something you do for 8 hours a day to pay for the fun shit you do at home and on the weekends. I have posted about this before and said that once work becomes "fun" you don't want to have a life outside of it. Sadly that's what's wrong w/our culture and why so many things are fucked up with it (ie a 60% divorce rate).
As far as not being properly motivated by teachers (using your example): Honestly, that's up to the student. If you are talking about workplace managers, then it is the manager's fault for not doing their job.
Let's put more money into better programs and methods for teaching, and wash out the teachers who aren't interesting. Maybe add some profit incentives for teachers?
I agree.
Teachers don't care. They know that once they are there for long enough they aren't losing their jobs. They have this thing called a union which makes sure they continue to get raises and better benefits.
Let's educate our teachers better. I went to college with a group of people that will be teaching MY children. One was a 23 year old teen fucker -- just the person I want to be teaching 16 through 18 year olds. One was a moron -- and when I say moron I mean when you talked to him he had one of those blank looks on his face at all times as if it just wasn't connected up there. Another was the happy-go-lucky dumbass -- you know the one that was more interested in cheering and being happy than actually having any knowledgebase to share. The last example was the cute girl that smoked a TON of pot type -- you know, stoned 24/7, like the teacher from Half Baked.
While I don't expect teachers to educate my children on everything, I do expect them to be better than the four fantastic examples I just gave. I am willing to take an active part in my children's education but I expect them to be able to learn from that education I give. Not to have learned their building blocks of education from a bunch of burn outs and morons.
I can tell you that the only time I was getting hits from Ask Jeeves is when I was banning a stalker from viewing my gallery. Ask Jeeves had apparently indexed my gallery at one point (ignoring the robots.txt) and had not removed it at any time.
I started seeing these OBNOXIOUS log entries with referrers from ask.com (see here).
I finally had to email ask.com to have them removed. They ignored my first request and then finally removed it after a repeated request. They certainly weren't as easy to deal w/as Google's removal tool.
Personally? I'd never use anything other than Google.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not (primarily) the web designers' fault that they use flashy designs... The people who get the contracts are the ones who have a 500KB Flash animation on every page and poorly coded Javascript rollovers because clients and PHBs see these things and go "Ooo! Shiny!"
/wap/ with the basic data that everyone needs to see.
Just because they developed a mainline site that uses flash does not mean they cannot make it detect WAP or low resolution displays and adapt accordingly.
You can show off all the glitz and glamour with your 90000KB index.htm and still have a
Personally? Even if I was on a HSD connection I'd be going to the slimmed down version. Just the facts ma'am.
I don't see this as really being a problem. People don't really browse the internet with handheld devices (phones, PDAs, etc) actually attempting to REPLACE their computer.
Oh right, just because you don't see it as happening means that it isn't, right? Well it is and it should.
Overkill on website design is unncessary. If you want to have that, great, but make sure you spent the little extra time to make sure the data is available for those people that don't have it. You people whine all the time about interoperability on everything else, why not this?
It took me 10 minutes to use Google to figure out how to make a WAP version of a utility I had on the web and make Apache automatically rewrite the URLs for it. It took me 30 minutes of trial and error on Slashdot w/preferences to make the homepage readable easily on my mobile net device.
Why can't some others do it too?
Use Weather Underground Mobile then and vote w/your "feet".
IIRC one of the guys from WU has a hiptop (T-mobile sidekick) and even went so far as to create a rocking WU client for it (which I use daily).
Mobile web is a luxury that will work only for those who run full operating systems on small devices, and it will work via WiFi, not any of the mobile phone (2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, whatever) networks.
Excuse me? No. It's very useful especially with a device that knows how to interact with sites that aren't specifically designed for it.
As I stated before I would hope that more webdesigners realize the need for customizable content and layout (google news, slashdot, etc) so that people who do use mobile devices can have fast load times and a pleasure using their sites.
It takes 10 minutes to change your site over to be WAP viewable and have Apache rewrite the URLs for you. If only people would take the time...
IMO, broswing website using some silly little contraption is silly. Just view the sites on a regualr computer when it's more convenient. Or, every web designer should use CSS and have a handheld-friendly CSS option.
Or webdesigners can take the time to make websites that have slimmed down versions (text only Google News, Slashdot's lite (or completely customizable version, various sites that offer WAP detection).
I have a little utility that I wrote for geocachers to convert words to numbers via the "dollar word method". A guy I know complained that it wouldn't render on his WAP phone. I spent the 10 minutes using Google to figure out how to write it to work w/WAP and how to get Apache to detect WAP and rewrite the URLs.
Is it really that hard to do? Do we really need Flash and 100k page loads for a simple website?
No, we don't and it's not silly when you are sitting on the bus or train or in the mall waiting for your SO to shop.
Be serious.
Well, from what I've seen, they're going to have just about every feature that FireFox offers (sans css2), was designed with security in mind (they claim), and it comes with the OS. Why would anyone average Joe Schmo user bother turning to something else?
If IE won't support something a good majority of websites won't either thus Joe Blow Computer User won't have any need for CSS2 support.
A lightly-edited interview transcript is posted below.
:(
I would have thought Slashdot would have left the all important question: "Who the fuck are you and why do I care?" in but apparently they didn't
Great post except this:
As I said, I believe this attitude of mine is due in part to my Gen X demographic. Baby boomers and older -- those presumably running XXAA -- grew up not expecting reviewing capability.
The ideals of those running the FooAA have nothing to do with their generation, their upbringing, or anything of the sort. It has to do with money and control.
As long as they can continue to manipulate the public's understanding of fairuse and can continue to sucker the public into buying shit quality recordings that are crippled with DRM then they are happy.
Once they stop making money they will start to realize that it's not in their best interests.
Sadly, people are sheep and believe whatever the latest media hype on TV is. They seriously believe they have no right to "steal" from the FooAA and listen/watch media however they want.
It's sad... Stop supporting the FooAA.
CSUC said it has implemented new security measures. One of them is to issue randomly assigned nine-digit identification numbers to students and staff, in place of Social Security numbers.
I did RTFA and it doesn't say *WHEN* that was implemented. Was it implemented 5 years ago because that's when TFA says that the data was stored from.
If it was implemented then were they not even prompting for SSNs or were they asking for the SSN and then creating a 9 digit ID number from that?
Just because you don't publically display your SSN doesn't mean it's not on file.
Why oh why do people give out their SSNs even when registering for college courses? I work at a college and I went to college. You aren't required to give your SSN and when I register for courses now I certainly don't.
Colleges shouldn't even ask applicants for their SSN. Yeah, it's a real pain in the ass 12 years from now when you try and get your transcripts and you can't remember your student ID. I graduated in 2001 and I remember mine... Maybe I won't in 10 more years but I will know that I can be searched for by name and graduation date.
DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR SSN TO ANYONE. If they ask then politely decline and ask if they will allow another ID number. Every college I know of has a student ID field.
Here we are pushing students to use their student ID instead of their SSNs (a good majority of students give us the wrong SSN anyway).
If the company can have you classed as a contractor, they save mondo money on not paying you benefits. They're saying they did the same work in the same office and effectively get discriminated against.
If you work through Manpower (as the employee the article listed) you do NOT work for HP and regardless of what work you do there you are NOT owed benefits/compensation from them.
You work for Manpower and should be arguing with THEM for better pay and benefits more in line with your current working conditions.
Jennifer Miller of Nampa is one of the plaintiffs. Miller said she was employed by HP in Boise from 1989 to 1995, when she took a severance package and left the company. She returned later in 1995 as a contract worker and worked at HP until March 9. Part of the time she was a contract employee through Veritest and Manpower Professional. Her jobs included testing software for HP printers.
Umm, I have never heard of anything like this before. Temp agencies hire employees, charge the companies their employees work at, and then pay (and give benefits if applicable) to their employees from that.
Since when are you owed money/benefits from a company you really don't directly work for?
ok, when that question gets modded up, it's time to rethink who you are doing interviews with, vs your target demographic.
Reading the AC comment that was modded 4/5 currently about this being the worst interview ever, I have to disagree. We have had some really shitty interviews.
The one "geek chic politician" (I'm too lazy to find the link) was interviewed and I was thrilled to have one of my questions posed to her. She didn't answer much of what I asked and basically treated me like any other politican or magician being called out on one of their slight of words/hands.
This particular question "who the fuck are you, and why do I care?" is actually an interesting one because (strangely enough) I don't remember the original article and I didn't know who this fucking guy was.
Now. While the interviewee's response isn't informative at all it certainly did interest me enough about him to continue reading.
At least he didn't go off on this self-indulgent rant about how great he is, how awesome all his voices are, and who's dick he sucked to get the job (I doubt it was because he could down a pint of beer in 5 seconds or I'd have a job in the cartoon world too).
The jist of it is, is that I smoke too much weed which is bad for my vocal chords. but after every show kids try to smoke me up. Any blue blooded stoner would love this charity, but I've learned to get the bulk of the shows done before I start indulging. This next tour is for a straight month, so I'll be gettin the shaky hands I'm sure. And I'll never lip synch. I'm very serious about performing. and letting people see and hear that I can do these songs live.
;)
At least he believes that charity is more important than self-preservation
There was some hype where I lived during the mid to late 80s where kids would drive up and down the streets with cordless phones to pick up on your conversations.
I frequently had issues in the dorms in college with interference from nearby cordless phones. I usually had to change "channels" on the base station several times in order to get out of the range of the people around me.
Pretty typical of cordless phones.
Please note the "Update:" under the blurb that is linked to from Slashdot...
The phone might not adhere to FCC regulations. If you can't use a FRS radio for more than a couple miles w/o a license why would you be able to use this cordless phone?
Really? Hmm, I figured it was a statement against a worthless policy. Something akin to standing up for what you believe in instead of just bowing your head and handing over your ID.
I looked at your web site. You look like the sort who would do that.
I don't see your point. I said I did it. I don't have to look like anyone to do something.
They were rude and they didn't deserve my business so I walked out and never returned. I wonder if they learned from their mistakes.
It's not exactly as if it's a company wide policy as plenty of other Cub foods don't ask.
Visa. I was told that I need to call them and tell them if I am going to be using my credit card in areas that they don't consider my home area.
I make sure to call them and say, "Mom and Dad, I'm going to Foo, FO and I'll be there for 7 days, please don't cut off my money for the week, ok?"
It's annoying but it's far less annoying than the embarassment of having to call the CC company from a pay phone in the restaurant that you were declined because you exceeded their unknown travel border.
Carping and timewasters don't bother me, I'm got a piss-poor customer service attitude already. I've had customer complaints because they didn't like the way I DIDN'T argue with them. What can YOU do?
Walk out and spend my money elsewhere. I don't shop at Cub foods in Eagan, MN because they check IDs and signatures when you use a CC.
When they started the policy I left an entire cart full ($200+) of groceries on the belt and walked out of the store.
Money spends good anywhere. Don't want to make my life easy? I'll take my money somewhere where they do. If only more people would stand up to the bullshit we put up w/on a daily basis this crap would end.
Considering how fast my CC company shut my account off during valid usage patterns I would be surprised if they didn't stop someone from using it while it was stolen.
If you honestly believe that the signature on the backside of a CC stops theft I feel sorry for you.
While I realize that this "article" was meant to be tongue in cheek, I'll say:
Every time you make a credit card purchase, they're supposed to match your signature against the one on the back of your card. Nobody seems to check anymore, so I tried to see how far I could push it with wacky signatures like "Mariah Carey" and "Zeus," which you can read in the original Credit Card Prank.
My signature is basically a W with a line after. I have been told it's "unique". I always reply, "it's fast." Signatures required for credit card purchases are lame. Checking my ID is even worse. I always make sure to be a PITA when they ask for my ID when I pay w/a CC. Paying with plastic is my way around hassle and if they're going to give me one I'm sure to pay them back with some.
I was grocery shopping when I ran into a new type of signature-checking device: the electronic screen. Instead of a flimsy scrap of paper, you now sign your name right into the screen. Finally, I thought, a better way to check our signatures!
For these I usually just put an X through it or a straight line. I always believed that an X was a valid signature. What happens if I'm truly unable to write my signature? I have to sign in that box in order for the signature to take so I do. I've never had a problem with someone questioning it (most are 16 year old kids that just don't give a shit).
Going back to my ID issues w/CC's. My ID has a signature on it (for what reason I have no idea) but in order to get that signature on there you have to be writing for a certain amount of time. I had to write out my entire name (including middle name) in order for it to take. It basically means that the signature on my ID is worthless as I never sign anything like that. Why bother to require it if you aren't going to get a valid signature from me?
If we are basing the validation of the signature to the back of a possibly stolen card don't you think that someone would attempt to at least forge the signature? I would think that would be the case.
The world is ending if people seriously believe that a handwritten signature on the back of a credit card will end theft. Maybe we should all be required to have our signature stored in a national database. That surely will stop the terrorists!
So to answer the question posed in the article title: "Credit card signatures: useless?" I have to answer, completely.
One of the reasons I am the 'compu-whiz' I am today is due to early exposure to computers. I broke them. I deleted things and modified things you weren't supposed to touch. I learned the hard way.
Current Windows versions don't allow for this as much as DOS did and various other OSs do. I knew how to fix a "missing Operating System" error with a sys a: c: or how to give me more memory under 640k to run the latest Sierra game. You don't need that close of a relationship with your computer anymore. People just want it to work.
"My computer is slow. Fix it." They don't care why, how to stop it from happening again, etc. They just want to be able to have it work again.
Having grown up with the prevelant user interface concepts I can get beyond most mazes of menus and get down to using the applications. Older generations have a deeper fear of computers specifically with regard to breaking them.
It's going to repeat again with the next generation for the reason I stated above. Too many people using computers without caring how they work or how to fix them (just like any other piece of tech) and not enough people with the knowhow to fix them.
It's sad.
Corporations still have a hell of a time keeping employees off of Solitaire and Minesweeper. I think this is not a computer problem, but a "bored at work" problem. I can remember my teachers in high school - most of them were the most boring people you would care to meet. A select few would enlighten and invoke interesting discussion and methods to achieve success on the course.
Well, work is called work and not vacation for a reason. Work is not something that is fun and exciting for most people and IMHO it shouldn't be. Work is something you do for 8 hours a day to pay for the fun shit you do at home and on the weekends. I have posted about this before and said that once work becomes "fun" you don't want to have a life outside of it. Sadly that's what's wrong w/our culture and why so many things are fucked up with it (ie a 60% divorce rate).
As far as not being properly motivated by teachers (using your example): Honestly, that's up to the student. If you are talking about workplace managers, then it is the manager's fault for not doing their job.
Let's put more money into better programs and methods for teaching, and wash out the teachers who aren't interesting. Maybe add some profit incentives for teachers?
I agree.
Teachers don't care. They know that once they are there for long enough they aren't losing their jobs. They have this thing called a union which makes sure they continue to get raises and better benefits.
Let's educate our teachers better. I went to college with a group of people that will be teaching MY children. One was a 23 year old teen fucker -- just the person I want to be teaching 16 through 18 year olds. One was a moron -- and when I say moron I mean when you talked to him he had one of those blank looks on his face at all times as if it just wasn't connected up there. Another was the happy-go-lucky dumbass -- you know the one that was more interested in cheering and being happy than actually having any knowledgebase to share. The last example was the cute girl that smoked a TON of pot type -- you know, stoned 24/7, like the teacher from Half Baked.
While I don't expect teachers to educate my children on everything, I do expect them to be better than the four fantastic examples I just gave. I am willing to take an active part in my children's education but I expect them to be able to learn from that education I give. Not to have learned their building blocks of education from a bunch of burn outs and morons.
-- end of rant --
I can tell you that the only time I was getting hits from Ask Jeeves is when I was banning a stalker from viewing my gallery. Ask Jeeves had apparently indexed my gallery at one point (ignoring the robots.txt) and had not removed it at any time.
I started seeing these OBNOXIOUS log entries with referrers from ask.com (see here).
I finally had to email ask.com to have them removed. They ignored my first request and then finally removed it after a repeated request. They certainly weren't as easy to deal w/as Google's removal tool.
Personally? I'd never use anything other than Google.