Ahem: eMacs bottom out at 799. You're half right about some of this, but that doesn't mean that Macs are impossible to get except by the "Artsy-Fartsy" who are meant to be bled dry.
In response to HanzoSan: I would say, as a teacher, that part of a student's job is coming to class and participating. Part of this is: reading the materials and coming in to share their experience of that reading. I usually set up attendance as part of a class participation grade.
BTW, can you tell I teach English Lit? These are classes where discussion and participation (I feel) are important. On the other hand, if a student has indeed turned in kickass work without the standard hallmarks of student participation, I usually give them the benefit of the doubt.
I can see your attitude being very suitable for extremely large lecture classes, particularly since: discussion is impossible in class and is usually saved for discussion sections run by a GTA. Lots of the information can be obtained from the textbook used in class (though you get a sense of what the Professor in Charge wants by attending lectures or at least borrowing good notes from someone).
Over the years, I've learned to (in some ways) not worry about attendance. The students are adults. The simple fact is that good performance without consistent attendance is quite rare. So it's a problem that is self-correcting. I suppose my main problem among students is lack of empathy. Have *you* tried successfully teaching a course where 10 of 20 students show up? How can you hope to communicate the skills and information you're charged with communicating if not everybody shows up?
William Gibson on the Evolving Computer Aesthetic:
She pointed at the beige hardware. "How come this old shit is always that same color?"
His forehead creased. "There are two theories. One is that it was to help people in the workplace be more comfortable with radically new technologies that would eventually result in the mutation or extinction of the workplace. Hence the almost universal choice, by the manufacturers, of a shade of plastic most often encountered in downscale condoms." He smirked at Chevette.
"Yeah? What's two?"
"That the people who were designing the stuff were unconsciously terrified of their own product, and in order not to scare themselves, kept it looking as unexciting as possible. Literally 'plain vanilla,' you follow me?"
So I'm thinking that computer designers have finally gotten over themselves. First, tech has (I wouldn't really say failed, but) done unexpected yet powerful things to how we do business and interact. There is perhaps more willingness to make things beautiful. The G5 certainly solves a great deal of the frustration one has with finding space for hard drives or wiring, and this has the advantage of being beautiful while being efficient.
Either way, if you spoke to an Adobe engineer, I'd be willing to bet that he'd tell you they spend just as much time optimizing their applications for one platform as they do the other. Hell, they recommended a Windows PC as the best configuration to run Photoshop only a short while ago!
I'd just like to point out that it was AfterEffects Adobe claimed was better on a Pentium-based system.
Wanted to add "before they were phased out at my university." Damn, no edit feature.
Anyway, anybody else have fond NeXT memories? This took me back to my freshman year. Used to make flyers for my anime club using the Draw program (which was way over-powered for what it was: you could import.eps files!)
Sadly, there was no sound, but it ran very well, and you could netplay with others on the LAN. I was introduced to these machines in 1993 (about two years before they were phased out in favor of PCs, sadly) and they were truly awesome...
Hell, not even David E. Kelly is David E. Kelly anymore. The parent post implied that there had been animated features based on Buffy, which is not, in fact, the case. Whedon also might be credited with the script for Alien 4, which he has since disowned. I'm not sure what his relationship with the script for Titan AE was (sure, he's a screenwriter on it with two other guys, so what role did he actually have? I agree that Titan AE sucked, though). To be honest, Whedon's Buffy run, Firefly, and Angel, though sometimes spotty were all IMHO excellent. Even the best hitters only hit 3 of 10 pitches (maybe 4).
Easy: Charmed is really bad. Buffy has come up with the funniest (The Zeppo, Hush, Storyteller), scariest (Hush, again) and most powerful (The Body, Becoming 2) episodes on TV. Charmed is three hot witches in bad outfits. Even at its best, its fluff (and oddly watchable... Rose McGowan... drool)
But anyway...
Oh, besides, how can anyone take an Aaron Spelling show seriously?
Um, what awful animated features? It was that (admittedly cheesy) Kristy Swanson movie first, then the series, then Angel. That's it. There's an animated series in development, but I hear it's so ambitious that there's probably no way it'll be produced.
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Ahem: eMacs bottom out at 799. You're half right about some of this, but that doesn't mean that Macs are impossible to get except by the "Artsy-Fartsy" who are meant to be bled dry.
I do. I have 47 GB of music, so I'd still have some left over if I got a 40 GB iPod. Gimme a 60GB!
In response to HanzoSan: I would say, as a teacher, that part of a student's job is coming to class and participating. Part of this is: reading the materials and coming in to share their experience of that reading. I usually set up attendance as part of a class participation grade.
BTW, can you tell I teach English Lit? These are classes where discussion and participation (I feel) are important. On the other hand, if a student has indeed turned in kickass work without the standard hallmarks of student participation, I usually give them the benefit of the doubt.
I can see your attitude being very suitable for extremely large lecture classes, particularly since: discussion is impossible in class and is usually saved for discussion sections run by a GTA. Lots of the information can be obtained from the textbook used in class (though you get a sense of what the Professor in Charge wants by attending lectures or at least borrowing good notes from someone).
Over the years, I've learned to (in some ways) not worry about attendance. The students are adults. The simple fact is that good performance without consistent attendance is quite rare. So it's a problem that is self-correcting. I suppose my main problem among students is lack of empathy. Have *you* tried successfully teaching a course where 10 of 20 students show up? How can you hope to communicate the skills and information you're charged with communicating if not everybody shows up?
So I'm thinking that computer designers have finally gotten over themselves. First, tech has (I wouldn't really say failed, but) done unexpected yet powerful things to how we do business and interact. There is perhaps more willingness to make things beautiful. The G5 certainly solves a great deal of the frustration one has with finding space for hard drives or wiring, and this has the advantage of being beautiful while being efficient.
Durandal64 wrote:
I'd just like to point out that it was AfterEffects Adobe claimed was better on a Pentium-based system.
Wanted to add "before they were phased out at my university." Damn, no edit feature. Anyway, anybody else have fond NeXT memories? This took me back to my freshman year. Used to make flyers for my anime club using the Draw program (which was way over-powered for what it was: you could import .eps files!)
Sadly, there was no sound, but it ran very well, and you could netplay with others on the LAN. I was introduced to these machines in 1993 (about two years before they were phased out in favor of PCs, sadly) and they were truly awesome...
Hell, not even David E. Kelly is David E. Kelly anymore. The parent post implied that there had been animated features based on Buffy, which is not, in fact, the case. Whedon also might be credited with the script for Alien 4, which he has since disowned. I'm not sure what his relationship with the script for Titan AE was (sure, he's a screenwriter on it with two other guys, so what role did he actually have? I agree that Titan AE sucked, though). To be honest, Whedon's Buffy run, Firefly, and Angel, though sometimes spotty were all IMHO excellent. Even the best hitters only hit 3 of 10 pitches (maybe 4).
Easy: Charmed is really bad. Buffy has come up with the funniest (The Zeppo, Hush, Storyteller), scariest (Hush, again) and most powerful (The Body, Becoming 2) episodes on TV. Charmed is three hot witches in bad outfits. Even at its best, its fluff (and oddly watchable... Rose McGowan... drool) But anyway... Oh, besides, how can anyone take an Aaron Spelling show seriously?
Um, what awful animated features? It was that (admittedly cheesy) Kristy Swanson movie first, then the series, then Angel. That's it. There's an animated series in development, but I hear it's so ambitious that there's probably no way it'll be produced.