Welcome to topsy-turvy land. We've actually been here for awhile, with "fiscal conservative" presidents and legislatures growing the national debt and supposedly "tax and spend liberal" presidents actually shrinking debt.
I support consolidating telecom facilities. Having facilities physically compromised is a bigger danger when there are more facilities, and having more facilities and presumably more equipment means more places one's information ends up, possibly leading to a greater chance that one's data won't remain secure to electronic penetration either.
Many years ago, Tennessee forced all of its state agencies on to one computer system for the bulk of State business. The agencies were very upset by this, but in the end it did save money and help keep records better because now agency X and agency Y were handling the same record, instead of having separate, different records that were never checked against each other. I'm sure there were problems, especially turf wars where agencies would fight over who "owned" the data and who could change things, but I'd bet it still worked better than having thirty individual agencies all with their own equipment that doesn't synchronize...
I do have a Galaxy S II, albeit the snapdragon-based "Hercules" version that T-Mobile sells, and I can get two, possibly three days of idle+occasional voice+occasional data services if I don't live on it. Since I have this thing called a job that requires my attention for around eight hours a day, my usage should be somewhat limited in those hours in which I'm away from my computer.
My phone resides in my pocket. Even if I left it on the dash of my car, the casing is only so large, even on my Galaxy S II. I don't see how even the most efficient of solar panels in the most effective of locations would provide enough power.
It's noble of them to try, but at the moment I'm not surprised this was the outcome.
If they're production machines operating machinery special-purpose, I don't see a problem with just leaving them on XP, assuming it's been patched, unlike some other group who didn't have security on their unpatched machines that resulted in the destruction of centrifuges...
Only if they can do it right. One problem with attempting to price anything based on supply vs. demand is that it's easy to get it wrong on the micro scale, and since people usually don't "consume" the same movie more than once when they're in the theatre, if they get it wrong they'll either drive away movie-goers with too high a price, or lose on profit by pricing too low. Then there's the problem of the blockbuster that would theoretically see much, much higher prices on opening night or day depending on the draw. When the Star Wars movies came out there were lines and lines, for days, just to buy tickets. If the prices were supply and demand, those initial showings would have had 10x the cost, with $100 a ticket, not $10, and there wouldn't have been lines.
I also don't want to see a commodities-trading type of purchase experience. I don't want the theatres to all link up for a market, where a movie is announced at a certain price, and then demand in ticket sales versus the supply of seats in the theatre causes a minute by minute fluctuations in price. It would leave some theatregoers paying little if a movie isn't quite sold out but they want to fill an auditorium, but might also leave some customers slammed in that magic 20 minutes before show timetable, when the bulk of the audience buys their tickets.
I see no materials. I see them not limiting users except maybe Cuba and Iran per explicit rules, but a service not requiring too much personal information would have a hard time keeping any semianonymous group off. Slashdot would have the same problem for example.
Most organizations are not deserving of free work on the part of an employee, regardless of hourly or salaried compensation. The only two times I can think of that might warrant some kind of uncompensated work would be where either a a company is in trouble and employees pulling extra effort might save their jobs, or where the extra work is likely to result in a better position in the company.
I don't see either being the case in the way you describe it. If you can't do it on the clock or at the office, don't do it.
We used Deepfreeze for awhile but they tried Clean Slate because it was cheaper. Now we're going back to Deepfreeze because Cleanslate won't let us install Ie8 or Office 2010 even when disabled.
I wish they'd just spent the money to train someone how to set policies, but they never did and probably never will.
Artwork will definitely be subject to school or district guidelines. Access to internet resources is probably controlled by the IS department and is out of the hands of the teacher.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but there's a real balance to strike between exciting diversions and core curriculum, and while there are some companies that encourage expression at work, there are probably ten times as many that don't want even cubicle decoration. Don't stifle the kids, but at the same time, don't teach them to expect so much individuality in expression that they experience a severe culture shock when they get into the workplace later. And since each student is different, there is an expectation that some kids simply won't like the environment, even if the majority of the kids are fine with it. Since we can't afford individualized instruction to that level this is simply going to be the case.
How many students at a time, and are these the top 20%, middle 60%, or bottom 20%?
What size of space?
These are all very important characteristics, and I've worked with all kinds of each. The one defining characteristic I can assert is that enough physical space both in the room and at the worksurfaces is important. When the room is cramped and the desks are cramped, the kids will be cramped, and will probably abuse the equipment more. It'll be harder to maintain and harder for custodial to keep the space clean.
I also suggest that the teacher's station be in the back on a raised platform, such that the teacher can easily see all of the screens.
I suggest a form factor like the "Small Desktop" form factor Dell has used for their Optiplex lines, and that the machines are mounted where with a little effort they can be reached by the user, but are otherwise somewhat out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Technicians performing maintenance will be pissed if they're on the back side of the desk where they can't be reached when in front of the console. Also, don't block too much access to the back, as the technician needs easy access to the connections.
If you won't need to reconfigure the lab, go with permanent fixture desks, run the data and electrical infrastructure in the furniture. Be sure to keep a good separation between data and electrical to minimize interference. If you will need to reconfigure, go with a raised floor like computer rooms use, that will allow cabling to be moved around as needed based on furniture configuration.
If the lab will be used for general ed computer-based learning rather than for technology-subject learning, put in short height partitions to separate students from each other a bit.
Avoid lighting on the blue end of the spectrum, go for yellower tones. Blue will make them fall asleep.
Avoid chairs that are too adjustable and on casters, they'll inevitably get destroyed. Chairs similar to those used in band and orchestra would be a good choice.
If you put up a projector, get one with the same aspect ratio as the teacher's station's screen. If possible, go for the same resolution. Put in a sound system too, at least a set of stereo speakers in the front connected to a small amp. Wire for everything on the projector even if you don't need it now- if you need to hook up a Blu-ray player or VCR or something later it's nice to have cabling.
I can tell you that scientists providing long term support for legacy products that continue to see new revisions or other innovations are essential in keeping the product line viable for the company. These older workers have probably already found and worked around the pitfalls that new, inexperienced employees would only discover the hard way, and in a product with a 40 to 50 year life cycle like many military or aerospace products have, failing to avoid the same problems development cycle after development cycle gets obscenely expensive. Much more expensive than just paying the wage to the older employee to avoid those problems.
On the other hand, when employees actually want or need to retire, and it becomes an entire generation, like mant of those who worked on the shuttle program, maybe it's time to retire the product rather than trying to extend it. ATK and trying to extend the SRBs is one example. They already have proven to have some flaws as we learned in 1986, so now that many of the engineers and scientists working on them are retiring, retire the product too.
I did that at one point too... I had two full-tower cases with six 5.25" bays each. One had my computer in it and the other just had some junk in it. This was a long time ago, both were AT...
...I can tell you that unless everyone present is already vetted, there will still be problems. People will reconfigure controls, will bring their own peripherals and will unhook yours, will move stuff around that they have no business moving, etc.
There's a reason why arcade game consoles were the order of the day in old-school electronic arcades- there was one cord to plug them in, they were too heavy to move, and the controls were specialized to the game and fixed into place. They were a kiosk for playing games in the same way that an ATM is a kiosk for dealing with money and banks. They worked well because the user couldn't do much to screw them up.
uh, you do know that everything to do with broadcasting is regulated through the FCC and basically always has been, right?
In an ideal world they'd have threatened revocation of broadcasting licenses due to the safety and equipment longevity problems caused by the overly loud commercials, and that would have gotten the industry to fix it real fast.
It's been that way for a very long time, long before computers were penetrated to gather trade secrets. For a long time the two major Communist nations in this world, the USSR and the People's Republic of China, did not have the resources to develop many advanced things. The Russians cloned our bombers that landed in Soviet territory, with the only differences being switching to metric units for things like sheetmetal gauge as opposed to SAE units. The US government tried very hard to keep particularly sensitive, new weapons out of Russia's hands during World War II, and out of China's hands during Korea and Vietnam.
Unfortunately now, we've decided to send our processes themselves to China. Since they're not interested in maintaining respect for intellectual property, we're giving them the very tools they need to best us.
In short, or own short-sighted greed is actively leading to our downfall as we speak.
If smugglers are smart they'll warehouse the contraband at one end or the other for a time, so that there isn't a twinning of activity, and if they're really smart, they'll vary the amount of time they warehouse it so that one can't detect an obvious pattern. Which side they'd warehouse on would probably be determined by the chances of the stash being seized one side or the other, the chances of being bodily-caught one side or the other, and the penalties on each side.
You're right that they could have some kind of dumbwaiter system using pneumatic tubes, but there's a catch, one still has to install the tubes and now has to maintain seals that are good enough at both ends, and has to supply the compressed air. If they're digging the tunnels by hand then it probably just makes sense to hand-carry or to hand-truck the contraband across, as there's no infrastructure machinery required to use the tunnel once it's constructed, and if the entrances are concealed properly then it might be difficult for authorities to find the entrance.
Your comparison is bad because in bars/clubs there are no other way to judge people but on looks and is a competitive environment to begin with and that makes it a poor place to look for a potential date although I can see your real problem seems to be the implied "if I don't take what I can get I will get nothing".
Sure there is. Talk to them. Treat the bar like your own personal, undeclared speed-dating session and talk to the ladies in the bar. Look for signs that what they're saying is too good to be true, and filter those out if you're actually looking for a long-term relationship. Pay attention to the kind of people that they're hanging out with too.
Or, just skip the bar scene and start doing activities that women also like to do. That doesn't mean doing effeminate activities, but it does mean, generally, getting off of the computer. In my case I met my wife when I learned to dance. BTW, dancing is a great way to meet women for non-long-term relationships too. I mean, you get to put your hands all over a woman for three and a half minutes and she thanks you for it when you're done. It can often lead to more intimate contact.
No, but I've been intermittent on Slashdot. I started reading it in '98 or so IIRC, was really into it for awhile in 2000-2001, petered out for a few years, then got back into it a few months ago when I realized how much stupider people were on many other online forums as compared to this one. The straw that broke the camel's back was a ban I received on another board because of a political argument that didn't result in a similar ban to the other parties that were equally bad- I don't dispute the punitive action taken against me, but the mods were very one-sided.
On the other hand, at least Slashdot's method of peer-review moderation means that nothing's really deleted unless it's so egregious that it threatens Slashdot's existence (like that Scientology incident a decade ago), so the nature of the discussion is entirely different when not having to deal with the whims of a few other members or a few mods on power trips. My comments are modded in-total-positively 100x more than in-total-negatively, so I'm obviously doing something right...
I was just surprised to see a dupe so quickly after the previous incarnation of the story. The original was still on the main page and hadn't scrolled off.
Slashdot Mirror
Welcome to topsy-turvy land. We've actually been here for awhile, with "fiscal conservative" presidents and legislatures growing the national debt and supposedly "tax and spend liberal" presidents actually shrinking debt.
I support consolidating telecom facilities. Having facilities physically compromised is a bigger danger when there are more facilities, and having more facilities and presumably more equipment means more places one's information ends up, possibly leading to a greater chance that one's data won't remain secure to electronic penetration either.
Many years ago, Tennessee forced all of its state agencies on to one computer system for the bulk of State business. The agencies were very upset by this, but in the end it did save money and help keep records better because now agency X and agency Y were handling the same record, instead of having separate, different records that were never checked against each other. I'm sure there were problems, especially turf wars where agencies would fight over who "owned" the data and who could change things, but I'd bet it still worked better than having thirty individual agencies all with their own equipment that doesn't synchronize...
I do have a Galaxy S II, albeit the snapdragon-based "Hercules" version that T-Mobile sells, and I can get two, possibly three days of idle+occasional voice+occasional data services if I don't live on it. Since I have this thing called a job that requires my attention for around eight hours a day, my usage should be somewhat limited in those hours in which I'm away from my computer.
My phone resides in my pocket. Even if I left it on the dash of my car, the casing is only so large, even on my Galaxy S II. I don't see how even the most efficient of solar panels in the most effective of locations would provide enough power.
It's noble of them to try, but at the moment I'm not surprised this was the outcome.
If they're production machines operating machinery special-purpose, I don't see a problem with just leaving them on XP, assuming it's been patched, unlike some other group who didn't have security on their unpatched machines that resulted in the destruction of centrifuges...
Only if they can do it right. One problem with attempting to price anything based on supply vs. demand is that it's easy to get it wrong on the micro scale, and since people usually don't "consume" the same movie more than once when they're in the theatre, if they get it wrong they'll either drive away movie-goers with too high a price, or lose on profit by pricing too low. Then there's the problem of the blockbuster that would theoretically see much, much higher prices on opening night or day depending on the draw. When the Star Wars movies came out there were lines and lines, for days, just to buy tickets. If the prices were supply and demand, those initial showings would have had 10x the cost, with $100 a ticket, not $10, and there wouldn't have been lines.
I also don't want to see a commodities-trading type of purchase experience. I don't want the theatres to all link up for a market, where a movie is announced at a certain price, and then demand in ticket sales versus the supply of seats in the theatre causes a minute by minute fluctuations in price. It would leave some theatregoers paying little if a movie isn't quite sold out but they want to fill an auditorium, but might also leave some customers slammed in that magic 20 minutes before show timetable, when the bulk of the audience buys their tickets.
I see no materials. I see them not limiting users except maybe Cuba and Iran per explicit rules, but a service not requiring too much personal information would have a hard time keeping any semianonymous group off. Slashdot would have the same problem for example.
I like, "Hackers Keyboard," for a decent SW keyboard. Works decent even on my Galaxy S II 4.5" screen...
Most organizations are not deserving of free work on the part of an employee, regardless of hourly or salaried compensation. The only two times I can think of that might warrant some kind of uncompensated work would be where either a a company is in trouble and employees pulling extra effort might save their jobs, or where the extra work is likely to result in a better position in the company.
I don't see either being the case in the way you describe it. If you can't do it on the clock or at the office, don't do it.
We used Deepfreeze for awhile but they tried Clean Slate because it was cheaper. Now we're going back to Deepfreeze because Cleanslate won't let us install Ie8 or Office 2010 even when disabled.
I wish they'd just spent the money to train someone how to set policies, but they never did and probably never will.
Artwork will definitely be subject to school or district guidelines. Access to internet resources is probably controlled by the IS department and is out of the hands of the teacher.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but there's a real balance to strike between exciting diversions and core curriculum, and while there are some companies that encourage expression at work, there are probably ten times as many that don't want even cubicle decoration. Don't stifle the kids, but at the same time, don't teach them to expect so much individuality in expression that they experience a severe culture shock when they get into the workplace later. And since each student is different, there is an expectation that some kids simply won't like the environment, even if the majority of the kids are fine with it. Since we can't afford individualized instruction to that level this is simply going to be the case.
What is the lab being used for?
What form factor are the computers?
What kind of connectivity will the computers use?
How many students at a time, and are these the top 20%, middle 60%, or bottom 20%?
What size of space?
These are all very important characteristics, and I've worked with all kinds of each. The one defining characteristic I can assert is that enough physical space both in the room and at the worksurfaces is important. When the room is cramped and the desks are cramped, the kids will be cramped, and will probably abuse the equipment more. It'll be harder to maintain and harder for custodial to keep the space clean.
I also suggest that the teacher's station be in the back on a raised platform, such that the teacher can easily see all of the screens.
I suggest a form factor like the "Small Desktop" form factor Dell has used for their Optiplex lines, and that the machines are mounted where with a little effort they can be reached by the user, but are otherwise somewhat out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Technicians performing maintenance will be pissed if they're on the back side of the desk where they can't be reached when in front of the console. Also, don't block too much access to the back, as the technician needs easy access to the connections.
If you won't need to reconfigure the lab, go with permanent fixture desks, run the data and electrical infrastructure in the furniture. Be sure to keep a good separation between data and electrical to minimize interference. If you will need to reconfigure, go with a raised floor like computer rooms use, that will allow cabling to be moved around as needed based on furniture configuration.
If the lab will be used for general ed computer-based learning rather than for technology-subject learning, put in short height partitions to separate students from each other a bit.
Avoid lighting on the blue end of the spectrum, go for yellower tones. Blue will make them fall asleep.
Avoid chairs that are too adjustable and on casters, they'll inevitably get destroyed. Chairs similar to those used in band and orchestra would be a good choice.
If you put up a projector, get one with the same aspect ratio as the teacher's station's screen. If possible, go for the same resolution. Put in a sound system too, at least a set of stereo speakers in the front connected to a small amp. Wire for everything on the projector even if you don't need it now- if you need to hook up a Blu-ray player or VCR or something later it's nice to have cabling.
Good luck. You're going to need it...
I can tell you that scientists providing long term support for legacy products that continue to see new revisions or other innovations are essential in keeping the product line viable for the company. These older workers have probably already found and worked around the pitfalls that new, inexperienced employees would only discover the hard way, and in a product with a 40 to 50 year life cycle like many military or aerospace products have, failing to avoid the same problems development cycle after development cycle gets obscenely expensive. Much more expensive than just paying the wage to the older employee to avoid those problems.
On the other hand, when employees actually want or need to retire, and it becomes an entire generation, like mant of those who worked on the shuttle program, maybe it's time to retire the product rather than trying to extend it. ATK and trying to extend the SRBs is one example. They already have proven to have some flaws as we learned in 1986, so now that many of the engineers and scientists working on them are retiring, retire the product too.
I did that at one point too... I had two full-tower cases with six 5.25" bays each. One had my computer in it and the other just had some junk in it. This was a long time ago, both were AT...
I had an overly strong computer case so I could sit on that actually.
I was the host more often than not though, so I had a chair.
Sounds like networking of a different sort...
Was there a sign up that said, "Marketing Department: two drink minimum"?
...I can tell you that unless everyone present is already vetted, there will still be problems. People will reconfigure controls, will bring their own peripherals and will unhook yours, will move stuff around that they have no business moving, etc.
There's a reason why arcade game consoles were the order of the day in old-school electronic arcades- there was one cord to plug them in, they were too heavy to move, and the controls were specialized to the game and fixed into place. They were a kiosk for playing games in the same way that an ATM is a kiosk for dealing with money and banks. They worked well because the user couldn't do much to screw them up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vympel_K-13
Just two military reverse-engineering examples that were damn near perfect copies that I could find in about two and a half minutes.
uh, you do know that everything to do with broadcasting is regulated through the FCC and basically always has been, right?
In an ideal world they'd have threatened revocation of broadcasting licenses due to the safety and equipment longevity problems caused by the overly loud commercials, and that would have gotten the industry to fix it real fast.
(avoiding stupid lameness filter)
WHAT?! WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT?!
(damn lameness filter avoidance tactic)
It's been that way for a very long time, long before computers were penetrated to gather trade secrets. For a long time the two major Communist nations in this world, the USSR and the People's Republic of China, did not have the resources to develop many advanced things. The Russians cloned our bombers that landed in Soviet territory, with the only differences being switching to metric units for things like sheetmetal gauge as opposed to SAE units. The US government tried very hard to keep particularly sensitive, new weapons out of Russia's hands during World War II, and out of China's hands during Korea and Vietnam.
Unfortunately now, we've decided to send our processes themselves to China. Since they're not interested in maintaining respect for intellectual property, we're giving them the very tools they need to best us.
In short, or own short-sighted greed is actively leading to our downfall as we speak.
If smugglers are smart they'll warehouse the contraband at one end or the other for a time, so that there isn't a twinning of activity, and if they're really smart, they'll vary the amount of time they warehouse it so that one can't detect an obvious pattern. Which side they'd warehouse on would probably be determined by the chances of the stash being seized one side or the other, the chances of being bodily-caught one side or the other, and the penalties on each side.
You're right that they could have some kind of dumbwaiter system using pneumatic tubes, but there's a catch, one still has to install the tubes and now has to maintain seals that are good enough at both ends, and has to supply the compressed air. If they're digging the tunnels by hand then it probably just makes sense to hand-carry or to hand-truck the contraband across, as there's no infrastructure machinery required to use the tunnel once it's constructed, and if the entrances are concealed properly then it might be difficult for authorities to find the entrance.
Sure there is. Talk to them. Treat the bar like your own personal, undeclared speed-dating session and talk to the ladies in the bar. Look for signs that what they're saying is too good to be true, and filter those out if you're actually looking for a long-term relationship. Pay attention to the kind of people that they're hanging out with too.
Or, just skip the bar scene and start doing activities that women also like to do. That doesn't mean doing effeminate activities, but it does mean, generally, getting off of the computer. In my case I met my wife when I learned to dance. BTW, dancing is a great way to meet women for non-long-term relationships too. I mean, you get to put your hands all over a woman for three and a half minutes and she thanks you for it when you're done. It can often lead to more intimate contact.
No, but I've been intermittent on Slashdot. I started reading it in '98 or so IIRC, was really into it for awhile in 2000-2001, petered out for a few years, then got back into it a few months ago when I realized how much stupider people were on many other online forums as compared to this one. The straw that broke the camel's back was a ban I received on another board because of a political argument that didn't result in a similar ban to the other parties that were equally bad- I don't dispute the punitive action taken against me, but the mods were very one-sided.
On the other hand, at least Slashdot's method of peer-review moderation means that nothing's really deleted unless it's so egregious that it threatens Slashdot's existence (like that Scientology incident a decade ago), so the nature of the discussion is entirely different when not having to deal with the whims of a few other members or a few mods on power trips. My comments are modded in-total-positively 100x more than in-total-negatively, so I'm obviously doing something right...
I was just surprised to see a dupe so quickly after the previous incarnation of the story. The original was still on the main page and hadn't scrolled off.
Pete and Repeat are ice skating. Pete falls down... Who's still standing?