Not to piss in YOUR Cheerios but I'm just as fine watching a decent story without any special effects which are enhanced with technology seen in theaters (home or otherwise).
I am quite happy to watch my $1 Redbox DVDs (not even Blu-Ray!) on my 10 year old 27" CRT non-HDTV with built in DVD player.
The story is what matters to me, not a bunch of flashy CGI or other bullshit which is better seen with fancy tech. For decades we had movies which didn't require anything special because the dialogue and story was good enough to keep you entertained. Unfortunately, and I may just be ignorant, but it seems that the signal to noise ration has increased here.
Now, I realize the general public likes special effects and expects them in movies. However, to go back to the original point of variety being required, can we include these "old style" movies again? I guarantee I won't be going to the theater because I can't afford a $50 evening to view a movie nor a $5500 home theater setup (my TV was $150 and my couch is a hand-me-down from a friend) but I'd certainly rent more $1 movies from Redbox and watch more movies on Instant if the recent selections were worthy of watching.
1. Continue to use DSL but get a new ISP. I was forced to use Frontier for the line but had Visi as my ISP and they allowed servers just fine--even reverse DNS.
2. Move to business class cable service. I'm forced to use Charter (which has its share of problems) but most of the rest of the TC has Comcast (which apparently at Business Class isn't terrible). It's about $72/month for business class with one static IP. No reverse DNS on Charter but that's not much of an issue unless you still IRC. If you don't want/can't get either, check out Clearwire's business class (their uptime guarantees are lame as shit, something like 13 days/year are considered acceptable).
4. I don't know much about VPS but thought I'd let you know there are options available even though you think there aren't.
There are others but I really like those three, particularly the first two. However #2 and #3 are both Minnesota based, where I currently reside, and thus have some local appeal as well.
I stream with the Wii because I don't have an HDTV nor will we for the foreseeable future. I'm guessing there are plenty of people in the same boat as me who, with one kid and one on the way, one income and very little disposable cash, can't seem to justify a $500 TV purchase when we're using Netflix instead of cable to save money in the first place.
I own two TVs. I use one for DVDs, Netflix Instant, and OTA NFL games. The other is collecting dust in my bedroom, I really should have it recycled.
So while I own them, I don't watch much TV--at least not until it shows up on Instant. Because of that, and because of everyone else being totally obsessed with TV, it is very hard not to point out that I have no fucking clue what they're talking about when they tell me about "New Show 131". If you just nod your head and pretend they catch on quickly and ask "WTF?"
You're an idiot either way for not watching the "idiot box.":(
I operate a website which has a local, loyal, knowledgeable, and (many time) contentious userbase. These people routinely post comments which get to the heart of the matter and because of the content of the site (restaurant reviews and local politics (county/city level)) can cause business owners and politicians to become upset.
One particular business, which isn't local yet but plans to be in the next year+, had some representatives post comments on the site and engage my readership. While I always track down new commenters to the best of my ability, especially to out astrotufing, these reps took the time to clearly announce who they were before I had to do any real work (thanks!)
However, after they posted some comments they realized two things:
1. They didn't sound very good.
2. They didn't like what my readers had to say.
As a result of this several exchanges went back and forth with them trying to get me to allow their comments and the comments of others to be edited/deleted.
Obviously the repeated answer I gave was "No."
---
People are learning about the Internet, especially PR, but for the most part they're very naive. I continually catch business owners or their reps trying to post astroturf comments in favor of the business and I happily out them. This happens on a continual basis and really brings into question sites such as Urbanspoon (which I actively support on my site) and Yelp.
However, if I am told by a court order to remove the comments, I will. I will go to bat for as long as I can before I have to put my financial stake on the line for a bunch of people on the Internet. I do my best to keep them anonymous (no long-term logging, allow them to use any non-bouncing e-mail address that they actually check) but I will only go so far.
I guess if it was just simple stuff, that'd be built into Excel, right? Maybe your problems are simple enough to just need a good macro writer to tackle? Whatever happens, good luck!
Sounds like you may be correct. More information is definitely required in order to recommend the proper product.
However, R would definitely be my go to choice when someone is asking about SPSS/SAS. Speaking of that, being a SAS guy I really need to take the time to get R experience.
Anyone with decent recommendations, aside from R's own website, where to do a quickstart when you're a SAS geek?
Disclaimer: I have worked in higher education my entire life and have worked for both state schools and a for-profit. I am currently employed by a for-profit institution.
---
Like any institution of higher education, the value of the education received is only equal to the accreditation it has. If a for-profit institution is accredited by a regional accrediting body (like your Harvards and state schools) their education quality is not going to be much different from what you would get elsewhere.
You can argue the worthiness of regional accreditation all day long but at the end of the day that's the final determining factor of a "quality" education in this country. For you to lump all for-profit institutions together into one big "fraud/lack quality" bucket shows that you have fallen prey to lack of information.
I suggest you do your homework and realize that while neither education system is perfect (public/non-profits have their own set of problems too) they're not all as bad as you want to believe.
A communications disruption can mean only one thing...
That for three minutes people realize they could be outside or reading a book? No, instead the nation will groan as a collective unit and curse the government.
Community colleges in Minnesota (and many other states) are all regionally accredited and their credits transfer, with ease, to the four-year institutions instate and nationally.
An AA/S may not do much but you can take the credits for less money at the CC and transfer them to the four-year to finish out the Undergraduate degree for far less than you would have paid starting there.
Disclaimer: I work for a for-profit institution. I have also worked at two other not-for-profit (state-run) institutions as well.
The problem is that the federal student loans, while genuinely useful to some, have been exploited pretty much to death by the for-profit colleges. Those do powerful marketing and have pretty much established the idea that everyone should go to college, no matter what.
You do realize that ALL colleges have massive marketing budgets right? A relatively large community college I worked for (6500 actual students (not training/etc) at the time) had more than a quarter of a million dollar marketing budget--just for marketing and that didn't include whatever Admissions marketing was happening. While that may not seem like a lot for a for-profit (and it probably isn't) but this is a metro-regional college which drew more or less only from the northeastern region of the MSP metro.
Yes, for-profit institutions are in it for the money but if you seriously believe there is a HUGE difference (aside from those clearly breaking the law--those of which have been shown in the media lately) between those and not-for-profit, it's clear you've been swallowing the wrong Kool-aid.
Listen, everyone wants more money. People (staff, faculty, administrators) at those institutions make money regardless of it being for the investors who choose to be (shareholders) or those who don't (taxpayers). They need to reach further, bring in more students, and do more with what they have to make that happen.
I promise you, the business model is identical across types of schools and while you can claim they are the reason for the downfall of society, as someone who has worked both sides I'm willing to openly state that you're wrong.
I argue it's because we're so busy pushing everyone out the door that the overall education suffers.
If we weren't so busy concerning ourselves with pretending those who refuse to learn should graduate we'd have a class of educated people who didn't cost as much to teach.
There is mass transit here in the lovely MSP area. Use that instead of driving a car.
My family owns one car, always has, and we make due by relying heavily on the mass transit infrastructure here. With ~50,000 students in a college in the middle of a major metro area why would they ever want to continue to support parking instead of leaning on what is already available elsewhere?
College is not necessarily a free-for-all experience where you spend the weekends drunk/recovering and Thursday nights doing the pre-party for those who are suitcasing it that weekend.
No, college is about being an adult and making adult decisions. I've worked for colleges in a variety of roles over the last 10 years and two of those years were in admissions for a community/tech college.
Here in Minnesota you can go to college and complete your undergrad for very little money. You start as a PSEO student in HS and the state pays your way through many of your first two years of college undergraduate credit without your taking out any loans. They count towards your HS diploma AND your college degree.
If you don't choose to go that way (or even if you do) you can enter the state's community college system and live at home (working part time hopefully) while taking college courses at costs far lower than you'd spend elsewhere--especially out of state.
Then you move on to an in-state four year institution, preferably close to home so you don't have to pay many boarding expenses and ride mass transit or carpool to save on driving costs. Then you complete your degree with very few student loans and nothing hanging over your head.
---
However, most people instead have dreams of grandeur and take out ridiculous student loans to attend some out-of-state school or in-state private institution which sets them back far more than they could ever afford. Instead of checking the lists for the mid-life salary range for a graduate of one of these schools they instead check the Best Party Lists instead.
No, this doesn't apply to everyone--like those of us who had a scholarship or some other way of affording school without loans lasting forever--but it seems to be a growing trend of those complaining now.
You are a legal adult at 18 years of age and regardless of your (and your parents') poor choices for your future does not mean that you could not have chosen another path.
The government is definitely artificially inflating the cost of a college education but it's not just from providing loan dollars.
1. The government sets ridiculous graduation mandates for secondary schools. They mandates basically force everyone to graduate from an institution they probably should not have.
2. Once these secondary graduates, who have been coddled into believing they are successful and special enter a post-secondary institution starved for resources and cash by a system which mandates ridiculous reporting requirements and thus staff, they expect to do as "well" there as they did in HS.
3. Now that we have a bunch of loans given out to these undereducated by self and family-proclaimed geniuses, we are getting loud whines when they have to pay back their loans on an education they were never cut out for in the first place.
---
What needs to happen is a recentering of education in America. We need to reset our expectations for the vast majority (including business) and say that a HS diploma may be enough for a lot of jobs. We're already spending at rates higher than other countries and receiving far less.
Let these people fail HS and/or just barely graduate and permit colleges to turn them away at the door by simply saying, "you are not prepared in the least for post-secondary work," instead of taking them in and reeducating them with 90/900 level remedial coursework.
We have a lot of work to do and while I do not believe dumping the federal student loan program will solve it, beginning at the individual level, moving through the local and going up through the fed with a major redesign of how we handle education and its worth may be a start.
It only makes sense to Google and those who use G+. For those of us who have a G+ account but use it for nothing and want to use it for nothing it makes absolutely no sense.
Especially to those of us who see G+ as yet another passing fad from Google. I've been using Reader for YEARS. I've had a G+ account for a couple months. Guess which one I haven't visited in a couple months vs the one I haven't visited in the last couple of seconds?
There's a reason why companies merge and eliminate duplicated positions when they want to run things more efficiently...
As many people who are employed after a merger/layoff know, companies reduce duplicate effort to make more money for their investors, not because the organization runs more smoothly when the "streamlining" occurs.
The public sector cannot be compared 1:1 to the private sector. Just because you're saving money for your investors (in this case the taxpayers) doesn't mean that operations of the bureaucracy will operate any better. In fact, it's likely that the due to many factors which may not exist in the private sector, that the investors/customers are not as happy when that merger takes place and thus aren't getting their monies worth when it does.
By leaving decisions up to the very local levels people can and do have a more active say in the happenings of their money.
I don't see your point. The Federal Government doesn't always fix the potholes either. Just because it's the Fed doesn't mean that it operates any better or faster than local government does.
Now that's not to say I fully agree with Paul's decision here. I am far more interested in governance at the city and county levels than I am at the federal and thus I am not as well versed in their necessity and overlap as I am at the lower levels. That said, my final comments stand:
We need to make some very painful decisions here and politicians and The People need to understand that we cannot do this from spending cuts and/or tax increases alone. We need to do both and suffer the consequences we've created for ourselves by living mostly on credit for the last 30 years.
Slashdot Mirror
And to you too sir :) Thanks for that smile.
Not to piss in YOUR Cheerios but I'm just as fine watching a decent story without any special effects which are enhanced with technology seen in theaters (home or otherwise).
I am quite happy to watch my $1 Redbox DVDs (not even Blu-Ray!) on my 10 year old 27" CRT non-HDTV with built in DVD player.
The story is what matters to me, not a bunch of flashy CGI or other bullshit which is better seen with fancy tech. For decades we had movies which didn't require anything special because the dialogue and story was good enough to keep you entertained. Unfortunately, and I may just be ignorant, but it seems that the signal to noise ration has increased here.
Now, I realize the general public likes special effects and expects them in movies. However, to go back to the original point of variety being required, can we include these "old style" movies again? I guarantee I won't be going to the theater because I can't afford a $50 evening to view a movie nor a $5500 home theater setup (my TV was $150 and my couch is a hand-me-down from a friend) but I'd certainly rent more $1 movies from Redbox and watch more movies on Instant if the recent selections were worthy of watching.
Well, Comcast is way faster than that. What are you waiting for?
1. Continue to use DSL but get a new ISP. I was forced to use Frontier for the line but had Visi as my ISP and they allowed servers just fine--even reverse DNS.
2. Move to business class cable service. I'm forced to use Charter (which has its share of problems) but most of the rest of the TC has Comcast (which apparently at Business Class isn't terrible). It's about $72/month for business class with one static IP. No reverse DNS on Charter but that's not much of an issue unless you still IRC. If you don't want/can't get either, check out Clearwire's business class (their uptime guarantees are lame as shit, something like 13 days/year are considered acceptable).
4. I don't know much about VPS but thought I'd let you know there are options available even though you think there aren't.
1. Lee Child - Jack Reacher series
2. John Sandford - Lucas Davenport series
3. William Kent Krueger - Cork O'Connor series
---
There are others but I really like those three, particularly the first two. However #2 and #3 are both Minnesota based, where I currently reside, and thus have some local appeal as well.
I can get OTA with my little box and antenna just the same for a lot less. I don't need an HDTV to do that,
I stream with the Wii because I don't have an HDTV nor will we for the foreseeable future. I'm guessing there are plenty of people in the same boat as me who, with one kid and one on the way, one income and very little disposable cash, can't seem to justify a $500 TV purchase when we're using Netflix instead of cable to save money in the first place.
While media content owners may think that "Instant" is 'stealing', it's not. I don't download anything illegally.
And you were modded up Insightful responding seriously to a post which was clearly sarcastic and meant to be funny. Plus you did it as an AC.
If that's not 'douchey' and 'smarmy' I don't know what is.
I guess I should have said I have it hooked up to a console device and I wouldn't have been modded into oblivion.
I own two TVs. I use one for DVDs, Netflix Instant, and OTA NFL games. The other is collecting dust in my bedroom, I really should have it recycled.
So while I own them, I don't watch much TV--at least not until it shows up on Instant. Because of that, and because of everyone else being totally obsessed with TV, it is very hard not to point out that I have no fucking clue what they're talking about when they tell me about "New Show 131". If you just nod your head and pretend they catch on quickly and ask "WTF?"
You're an idiot either way for not watching the "idiot box." :(
I operate a website which has a local, loyal, knowledgeable, and (many time) contentious userbase. These people routinely post comments which get to the heart of the matter and because of the content of the site (restaurant reviews and local politics (county/city level)) can cause business owners and politicians to become upset.
One particular business, which isn't local yet but plans to be in the next year+, had some representatives post comments on the site and engage my readership. While I always track down new commenters to the best of my ability, especially to out astrotufing, these reps took the time to clearly announce who they were before I had to do any real work (thanks!)
However, after they posted some comments they realized two things:
1. They didn't sound very good.
2. They didn't like what my readers had to say.
As a result of this several exchanges went back and forth with them trying to get me to allow their comments and the comments of others to be edited/deleted.
Obviously the repeated answer I gave was "No."
---
People are learning about the Internet, especially PR, but for the most part they're very naive. I continually catch business owners or their reps trying to post astroturf comments in favor of the business and I happily out them. This happens on a continual basis and really brings into question sites such as Urbanspoon (which I actively support on my site) and Yelp.
If you're interested you can see one of my discussions about this here: http://www.lazylightning.org/astroturfing-poor-attempts-at-changing-opinion
However, if I am told by a court order to remove the comments, I will. I will go to bat for as long as I can before I have to put my financial stake on the line for a bunch of people on the Internet. I do my best to keep them anonymous (no long-term logging, allow them to use any non-bouncing e-mail address that they actually check) but I will only go so far.
Sounds like you may be correct. More information is definitely required in order to recommend the proper product.
However, R would definitely be my go to choice when someone is asking about SPSS/SAS. Speaking of that, being a SAS guy I really need to take the time to get R experience.
Anyone with decent recommendations, aside from R's own website, where to do a quickstart when you're a SAS geek?
Disclaimer: I have worked in higher education my entire life and have worked for both state schools and a for-profit. I am currently employed by a for-profit institution.
---
Like any institution of higher education, the value of the education received is only equal to the accreditation it has. If a for-profit institution is accredited by a regional accrediting body (like your Harvards and state schools) their education quality is not going to be much different from what you would get elsewhere.
You can argue the worthiness of regional accreditation all day long but at the end of the day that's the final determining factor of a "quality" education in this country. For you to lump all for-profit institutions together into one big "fraud/lack quality" bucket shows that you have fallen prey to lack of information.
I suggest you do your homework and realize that while neither education system is perfect (public/non-profits have their own set of problems too) they're not all as bad as you want to believe.
That for three minutes people realize they could be outside or reading a book? No, instead the nation will groan as a collective unit and curse the government.
You murder someone at 18 or you joint he military and are KIA or permanently disabled and you're screwed for the rest of your life.
Why should choosing to take out loans be any different than any other adult decision?
Community colleges in Minnesota (and many other states) are all regionally accredited and their credits transfer, with ease, to the four-year institutions instate and nationally.
An AA/S may not do much but you can take the credits for less money at the CC and transfer them to the four-year to finish out the Undergraduate degree for far less than you would have paid starting there.
Disclaimer: I work for a for-profit institution. I have also worked at two other not-for-profit (state-run) institutions as well.
You do realize that ALL colleges have massive marketing budgets right? A relatively large community college I worked for (6500 actual students (not training/etc) at the time) had more than a quarter of a million dollar marketing budget--just for marketing and that didn't include whatever Admissions marketing was happening. While that may not seem like a lot for a for-profit (and it probably isn't) but this is a metro-regional college which drew more or less only from the northeastern region of the MSP metro.
Yes, for-profit institutions are in it for the money but if you seriously believe there is a HUGE difference (aside from those clearly breaking the law--those of which have been shown in the media lately) between those and not-for-profit, it's clear you've been swallowing the wrong Kool-aid.
Listen, everyone wants more money. People (staff, faculty, administrators) at those institutions make money regardless of it being for the investors who choose to be (shareholders) or those who don't (taxpayers). They need to reach further, bring in more students, and do more with what they have to make that happen.
I promise you, the business model is identical across types of schools and while you can claim they are the reason for the downfall of society, as someone who has worked both sides I'm willing to openly state that you're wrong.
I argue it's because we're so busy pushing everyone out the door that the overall education suffers.
If we weren't so busy concerning ourselves with pretending those who refuse to learn should graduate we'd have a class of educated people who didn't cost as much to teach.
There is mass transit here in the lovely MSP area. Use that instead of driving a car.
My family owns one car, always has, and we make due by relying heavily on the mass transit infrastructure here. With ~50,000 students in a college in the middle of a major metro area why would they ever want to continue to support parking instead of leaning on what is already available elsewhere?
Ahhh, yes. The old misconceptions about college!
College is not necessarily a free-for-all experience where you spend the weekends drunk/recovering and Thursday nights doing the pre-party for those who are suitcasing it that weekend.
No, college is about being an adult and making adult decisions. I've worked for colleges in a variety of roles over the last 10 years and two of those years were in admissions for a community/tech college.
Here in Minnesota you can go to college and complete your undergrad for very little money. You start as a PSEO student in HS and the state pays your way through many of your first two years of college undergraduate credit without your taking out any loans. They count towards your HS diploma AND your college degree.
If you don't choose to go that way (or even if you do) you can enter the state's community college system and live at home (working part time hopefully) while taking college courses at costs far lower than you'd spend elsewhere--especially out of state.
Then you move on to an in-state four year institution, preferably close to home so you don't have to pay many boarding expenses and ride mass transit or carpool to save on driving costs. Then you complete your degree with very few student loans and nothing hanging over your head.
---
However, most people instead have dreams of grandeur and take out ridiculous student loans to attend some out-of-state school or in-state private institution which sets them back far more than they could ever afford. Instead of checking the lists for the mid-life salary range for a graduate of one of these schools they instead check the Best Party Lists instead.
No, this doesn't apply to everyone--like those of us who had a scholarship or some other way of affording school without loans lasting forever--but it seems to be a growing trend of those complaining now.
You are a legal adult at 18 years of age and regardless of your (and your parents') poor choices for your future does not mean that you could not have chosen another path.
The government is definitely artificially inflating the cost of a college education but it's not just from providing loan dollars.
1. The government sets ridiculous graduation mandates for secondary schools. They mandates basically force everyone to graduate from an institution they probably should not have.
2. Once these secondary graduates, who have been coddled into believing they are successful and special enter a post-secondary institution starved for resources and cash by a system which mandates ridiculous reporting requirements and thus staff, they expect to do as "well" there as they did in HS.
3. Now that we have a bunch of loans given out to these undereducated by self and family-proclaimed geniuses, we are getting loud whines when they have to pay back their loans on an education they were never cut out for in the first place.
---
What needs to happen is a recentering of education in America. We need to reset our expectations for the vast majority (including business) and say that a HS diploma may be enough for a lot of jobs. We're already spending at rates higher than other countries and receiving far less.
Let these people fail HS and/or just barely graduate and permit colleges to turn them away at the door by simply saying, "you are not prepared in the least for post-secondary work," instead of taking them in and reeducating them with 90/900 level remedial coursework.
We have a lot of work to do and while I do not believe dumping the federal student loan program will solve it, beginning at the individual level, moving through the local and going up through the fed with a major redesign of how we handle education and its worth may be a start.
It only makes sense to Google and those who use G+. For those of us who have a G+ account but use it for nothing and want to use it for nothing it makes absolutely no sense.
Especially to those of us who see G+ as yet another passing fad from Google. I've been using Reader for YEARS. I've had a G+ account for a couple months. Guess which one I haven't visited in a couple months vs the one I haven't visited in the last couple of seconds?
As many people who are employed after a merger/layoff know, companies reduce duplicate effort to make more money for their investors, not because the organization runs more smoothly when the "streamlining" occurs.
The public sector cannot be compared 1:1 to the private sector. Just because you're saving money for your investors (in this case the taxpayers) doesn't mean that operations of the bureaucracy will operate any better. In fact, it's likely that the due to many factors which may not exist in the private sector, that the investors/customers are not as happy when that merger takes place and thus aren't getting their monies worth when it does.
By leaving decisions up to the very local levels people can and do have a more active say in the happenings of their money.
I don't see your point. The Federal Government doesn't always fix the potholes either. Just because it's the Fed doesn't mean that it operates any better or faster than local government does.
Now that's not to say I fully agree with Paul's decision here. I am far more interested in governance at the city and county levels than I am at the federal and thus I am not as well versed in their necessity and overlap as I am at the lower levels. That said, my final comments stand:
We need to make some very painful decisions here and politicians and The People need to understand that we cannot do this from spending cuts and/or tax increases alone. We need to do both and suffer the consequences we've created for ourselves by living mostly on credit for the last 30 years.