> When I was in high school, there were juniors and seniors who could barely read...
But isn't this the old "How can we go to the moon when we can't cure the common cold" argument?
There will always be dullards in school. Most of them end up doing drudge factory work, but a few can handle a wrench or a football and make do in life without much math or writing.
Be that as it may, we can not stop the world for those that would rather not go round.
Those that can clearly write, and those that can compose a rational sentence, will usually end up doing so, and probably should have typing skills, whether acquired voluntarily or required.
I submit it is NOT necessary to put proper writing skills and composition ahead of typing skills. In fact I would state that is EXACTLY backwards. In fact your entire list is backwards.
You must learn to lay brick before you build the city. Having the mechanical skills practiced and ready makes the writing easier, the composition natural.
Having a good verbal understanding of grammar makes the reading and writing easier.
Typing is EASY, its all physical. Children can learn it BEFORE they have any ability to understand composition, or grammar, or spelling.
So I would start from the bottom up. Your list is up side down.
>I've been a programmer for longer than I care to > remember. I took typing in high school, but never > managed to be a touch typist
I suspect, like most, you see the words "touch typing" and assume this means there is never a peek at the keyboard.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Even the best and fastest touch typists look at the keys occasionally except when they are trying to show off.
If you have been a programmer that long I can state with certainty you do more touch typing than you think you do.
In fact I rather suspect you look at the screen most of the time, and your fingers just seem to hit the keys you need without you thinking about it. You probably occasionally peek a the keys, but can go paragraphs without looking at the keys or without looking at the screen, or just staring off into space.
And when you make a mistake you know it instantly because your fingers just sort of freeze, as if they had eyes.
If you use only your index fingers, you would have long since been out of programming.
Running headless, there would be a static image or black screen shown. Why would anything be drawing to the screen?
(There is no reason any sane person would run a screen saver on a headless system, or even use runlevel 5).
If he wanted to do Folding At home with his GPU he wouldn't be yanking out the AGP card now would he!?!??
Substituting a trash-bin VGA card, (which every harware hacker has 8 or 10 of in the back room) saves power over anything with a smart GPU, and saves all the power that is worth saving while still preserving a monitor hook-up capability for emergencies.
Leaving the current AGP cards in place running at the run-level 3 black screen saves just about as much. The card is not doing anything.
That's particularly true for those who have studied a little Latin and are familiar with the word "fasces" (a bundle of rods with an axe protruding) which was often touted as a symbol of (Roman) state power, with the implication being that state power for its own sake was considered desirable or "glorius." For the original fasces, the rods represented corporal punishment while the protruding axe represented execution by beheading, and it was meant to symbolize the state's power over life and limb."
I wonder if your interpretation was indeed the historical one, or one invented much more recently.
Those old enough to remember the Mercury Dime from 1916 thru 1945 will remember that symbol on the back.
At that time, the symbol was explained as a symbol of the strength which lies in unity, while the battle-ax stands for preparedness to defend the Union.
Long since replaced by a torch, one has to suspect that future generations will accuse the US of officially sponsoring eco-terrorism.
"Contrary to what the New York Times reported, the publisher did not change its mind, nor did Amazon cave to pressure. Rather, Amazon was notified that copyrighted material was being sold on the Amazon store without permission and it removed said material."
So we are back to the stolen goods scenario. Someone sold Amazon ebooks that they did not hold the rights to. Amazon was itself a victim.
Amazon can't legally resell stolen goods.
Having done so, they certainly don't gain the right to steal them back from kindle owners. They should have just paid the royalty to the rightful copyright holder and be done with it.
I'm not defending Amazon's actions here, merely questioning SlothDead's characterization of the terms of sale.
Amazon did not have the right to sell it, because the their supplier did not have the right to sell to them.
It is somewhat akin to stolen property at this point, and can not be legally bought any more than stolen jewelry or cars.
But unlike cars, all Amazon had to do was pay the rightful copyright owner a royalty out of their pocket, and chock it up to damaged goods, and write it off on their taxes.
Taking it out on the customers was the wrong thing to do.
Your average farm animal does not suffer much pain in its life. At least not since we stopped harnessing them for pulling plows.
Large animals, cattle, hogs, probably feel one brief instance of pain as the are slaughtered, but other than that modern animal husbandry does not involve inflicting pain. Even the ear tags used on cows do not seem to bother them much. Watching them punch those tags in, many animals don't even seem to notice.
Chickens and turkeys life in crowded areas, and occasionally stampede each other, but other than that they live a boring but pain free existence.
This is a stupid idea. The animals would hurt themselves more with this than without it. The barbed wire fence would rip grazing cattle to shreds if they couldn't feel it.
Be careful what you wish for. Copyrights have a much longer life span than Patents.
Tell you what, lets consolidate patents and trade marks and copyrights and offer a world wide PatentRight(tm).
In exchange, the duration is 15 years. Death penalty for anyone proposing any extension.
Loss of protection occurs if you do not market within 5 years of issue.
Marketing to all comers required at the same fee.
Its time our inventors and creators started serving humanity instead of the other way around. If they don't want to create under these rules, fine. We will find someone else.
Audio (and everything else) sent by skype is encrypted.
That is why you need to install a Trojan ON the target machine. This Trojan grabs it AFTER it has been decrypted by skype.
Because it is running local it should be detectable.
Because they chose the trojan route, you can be reasonably assured that breaking the encryption is harder and more troublesome than sneaking into your house and installing a trojan or tricking you into installing it for them.
They employ carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters, decorators, and landscapers.
The move into those homes, and purchase furniture, hire gardeners, pool maintenance, install security systems.
They buy food, keep farmers busy, grocery stores operating, stock boys employed.
They buy yachts, employing boat yards, marine architects, welders, diesel mechanics, chefs, cabin boys, and captains.
They buy cars, they buy cars for their friends.
They put their kids through expensive colleges, they donate to the schools, the schools give scholarships.
They invest their money, expecting a return on their investment, the money invested goes to build sewers, roads, airliners, chemical plants, tennis shoes, dinner plates, and steel mills. Each of those industries employ millions.
Each person they employ directly buys groceries, pays rent or a mortgage, builds houses, buys cars, puts their kids through school, furnish their houses, buy clothes. Those purchases keep yet more people employed.
All of this made possible by building a tool or a plow cheaper than the competition, a plow that was just good enough to do the job without wasting any money overbuilding.
Nobody sits on money these days. They put it to work and employ people.
I, sir, have a degree in economics. Maybe you should try to get your high school diploma before weighing in on these matters.
But I covered that when I asserted that COST was the controlling factor.
Time and effort involved in replacing a worn out tool is a huge part of COST. The other parts are manufacturing expense, transportation, and raw materials.
Profits of the miners, manufacturers, and resellers, on the other hand, while seemingly part of cost to the end user, are in actuality simply the oil on the gears of a machine. Profit is society's way of insuring someone will make another tool. Otherwise the Virginia Farmer stops everything, digs a mine, smelts his ore, forges his wrench, and fixes his plow. Just in time for winter.
Look, if you want to get on some Soviet era rant at least complete a few courses in economics before you don your Che Guevara hat and start spewing Marxist rhetoric.
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> When I was in high school, there were juniors and seniors who could barely read ...
But isn't this the old "How can we go to the moon when we can't cure the common cold" argument?
There will always be dullards in school. Most of them end up doing drudge factory work, but a few can handle a wrench or a football and make do in life without much math or writing.
Be that as it may, we can not stop the world for those that would rather not go round.
Those that can clearly write, and those that can compose a rational sentence, will usually end up doing so, and probably should have typing skills, whether acquired voluntarily or required.
I submit it is NOT necessary to put proper writing skills and composition ahead of typing skills. In fact I would state that is EXACTLY backwards. In fact your entire list is backwards.
You must learn to lay brick before you build the city. Having the mechanical skills practiced and ready makes the writing easier, the composition natural.
Having a good verbal understanding of grammar makes the reading and writing easier.
Typing is EASY, its all physical. Children can learn it BEFORE they have any ability to understand composition, or grammar, or spelling.
So I would start from the bottom up. Your list is up side down.
The slowest part of typing is NOT finding the keys.
It is finding the words.
> Additionally--a lot of people won't need typing much, and those that will use it a lot (for business or pleasure) will get gooder at it anyway.
Unlike English composition skills, which seem never to "get gooder".
>I've been a programmer for longer than I care to
> remember. I took typing in high school, but never
> managed to be a touch typist
I suspect, like most, you see the words "touch typing" and assume this means there is never a peek at the keyboard.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Even the best and fastest touch typists look at the keys occasionally except when they are trying to show off.
If you have been a programmer that long I can state with certainty you do more touch typing than you think you do.
In fact I rather suspect you look at the screen most of the time, and your fingers just seem to hit the keys you need without you thinking about it. You probably occasionally peek a the keys, but can go paragraphs without looking at the keys or without looking at the screen, or just staring off into space.
And when you make a mistake you know it instantly because your fingers just sort of freeze, as if they had eyes.
If you use only your index fingers, you would have long since been out of programming.
Wasn't in the curriculum 30 years ago?
Nonsense. Was too.
It was an optional class in my high school, and it was full of girls, so I took it so I could sit next to HER.
The touch typing is still with me to this day, but I haven't thought about HER for 29 years, until just now.
It was the single most valuable class I took in High School.
A vga card just does not draw that much.
Running headless, there would be a static image or black screen shown. Why would anything be drawing to the screen?
(There is no reason any sane person would run a screen saver on a headless system, or even use runlevel 5).
If he wanted to do Folding At home with his GPU he wouldn't be yanking out the AGP card now would he!?!??
Substituting a trash-bin VGA card, (which every harware hacker has 8 or 10 of in the back room) saves power over anything with a smart GPU, and saves all the power that is worth saving while still preserving a monitor hook-up capability for emergencies.
Leaving the current AGP cards in place running at the run-level 3 black screen saves just about as much. The card is not doing anything.
That's particularly true for those who have studied a little Latin and are familiar with the word "fasces" (a bundle of rods with an axe protruding) which was often touted as a symbol of (Roman) state power, with the implication being that state power for its own sake was considered desirable or "glorius." For the original fasces, the rods represented corporal punishment while the protruding axe represented execution by beheading, and it was meant to symbolize the state's power over life and limb."
I wonder if your interpretation was indeed the historical one, or one invented much more recently.
Those old enough to remember the Mercury Dime from 1916 thru 1945 will remember that symbol on the back.
Images and history here:
http://blog.numismaticnews.net/flipside/Our+Fascist+Dime.aspx
At that time, the symbol was explained as a symbol of the strength which lies in unity, while the battle-ax stands for preparedness to defend the Union.
Long since replaced by a torch, one has to suspect that future generations will accuse the US of officially sponsoring eco-terrorism.
That is because fascist is the least understood and most often misused description of all political systems.
Nobody has a clear understanding of what exactly it means, in theory, or in practice.
Even the all inclusive, if not overly pedantic Wikipedia admits there is no common definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist
"No common and concise definition exists for fascism and historians and political scientists disagree on what should be in any concise definition."
Of late, it has become the pejorative de jour for any system the speaker dislikes.
People would listen to you and buy you beers if you couched your criticisms in terms understood by those at the far.
> The easy solution is to buy a serial card for these machines.
No.
By far the easiest solution is to leave the VGA card in the machine.
Removing it to save power is a pointless exercise. As long as you don't have a monitor running removing the card saves virtually nothing.
Unpower floppys, CD readers, and all the fans you can get away with, but yanking video cards just silly.
What makes this post especially silly is that many older machines have on-board video anyway.
But that account is wrong:
http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/storymf00554.htm
"Contrary to what the New York Times reported, the publisher did not change its mind, nor did Amazon cave to pressure. Rather, Amazon was notified that copyrighted material was being sold on the Amazon store without permission and it removed said material."
So we are back to the stolen goods scenario. Someone sold Amazon ebooks that they did not hold the rights to. Amazon was itself a victim.
Amazon can't legally resell stolen goods.
Having done so, they certainly don't gain the right to steal them back from kindle owners. They should have just paid the royalty to the rightful copyright holder and be done with it.
I'm not defending Amazon's actions here, merely questioning SlothDead's characterization of the terms of sale.
Amazon did not have the right to sell it, because the their supplier did not have the right to sell to them.
It is somewhat akin to stolen property at this point, and can not be legally bought any more than stolen jewelry or cars.
But unlike cars, all Amazon had to do was pay the rightful copyright owner a royalty out of their pocket, and chock it up to damaged goods, and write it off on their taxes.
Taking it out on the customers was the wrong thing to do.
>the terms of use already specify that you own everything you buy from amazon forever.
Does it infact ever say that in so many words?
Or does it say in effect you own every *legally* purchased item?
> Kindle removes the remote deletion capability
Agreed that would be the best solution. Anything else amounts to a rental.
But from the summary: "apparently with annotations intact" suggests to me it may never have actually removed from the device in the first place.
Perhaps a little careful hacking may reveal how to undo Amazon triggered deletions.
Or perhaps only the annotations, stored in a separate location remain.
How did I know you vegans would weigh in with your overwrought horror stories.
Unlike you, I've actually worked on a farm, so don't bring that nonsense around here.
http://www.aces.edu/department/extcomm/npa/newsline/archives/cattle%20grazing.jpg
"inspires psychological anguish"
In the animal, or the PETA member watching the animal contentedly graze in the field?
Because its a solution looking for a problem.
Your average farm animal does not suffer much pain in its life. At least not since we stopped harnessing them for pulling plows.
Large animals, cattle, hogs, probably feel one brief instance of pain as the are slaughtered, but other than that modern
animal husbandry does not involve inflicting pain. Even the ear tags used on cows do not seem to bother them much.
Watching them punch those tags in, many animals don't even seem to notice.
Chickens and turkeys life in crowded areas, and occasionally stampede each other, but other than that they live
a boring but pain free existence.
This is a stupid idea. The animals would hurt themselves more with this than without it. The barbed wire fence would
rip grazing cattle to shreds if they couldn't feel it.
Seriously, this looks like it could trip on your average pothole, curb cut, or simply breaking hard.
Yes, your feet are fairly forward where you might be able to catch your self, but I see a lot of separated shoulders in this this bikes portfolio.
Well thats just for the lasers.
Wait till you see the Shark bill from the Seattle Aquarium.
Be careful what you wish for. Copyrights have a much longer life span than Patents.
Tell you what, lets consolidate patents and trade marks and copyrights and offer a world wide PatentRight(tm).
In exchange, the duration is 15 years. Death penalty for anyone proposing any extension.
Loss of protection occurs if you do not market within 5 years of issue.
Marketing to all comers required at the same fee.
Its time our inventors and creators started serving humanity instead of the other way around. If they don't want to create under these rules, fine. We will find someone else.
First, we had the shift from hunting/gathering to agriculture.
You know, its not always necessary to start at the beginning.....
For some of them. Unless users have a way to exchange their public keys in a reliable PKI through a secure channel
Well Skype is similar to SSL in that department.
And we all know how secure that is.
Oh, wait....
Audio (and everything else) sent by skype is encrypted.
That is why you need to install a Trojan ON the target machine. This Trojan grabs it AFTER it has been decrypted by skype.
Because it is running local it should be detectable.
Because they chose the trojan route, you can be reasonably assured that breaking the encryption is harder and more troublesome than sneaking into your house and installing a trojan or tricking you into installing it for them.
No, they buy expensive homes.
They employ carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters, decorators, and landscapers.
The move into those homes, and purchase furniture, hire gardeners, pool maintenance, install security systems.
They buy food, keep farmers busy, grocery stores operating, stock boys employed.
They buy yachts, employing boat yards, marine architects, welders, diesel mechanics, chefs, cabin boys, and captains.
They buy cars, they buy cars for their friends.
They put their kids through expensive colleges, they donate to the schools, the schools give scholarships.
They invest their money, expecting a return on their investment, the money invested goes to build sewers, roads, airliners, chemical plants, tennis shoes, dinner plates, and steel mills. Each of those industries employ millions.
Each person they employ directly buys groceries, pays rent or a mortgage, builds houses, buys cars, puts their kids through school, furnish their houses, buy clothes. Those purchases keep yet more people employed.
All of this made possible by building a tool or a plow cheaper than the competition, a plow that was just good enough to do the job without wasting any money overbuilding.
Nobody sits on money these days. They put it to work and employ people.
I, sir, have a degree in economics. Maybe you should try to get your high school diploma before weighing in on these matters.
Agreed.
But I covered that when I asserted that COST was the controlling factor.
Time and effort involved in replacing a worn out tool is a huge part of COST. The other parts are manufacturing expense, transportation, and raw materials.
Profits of the miners, manufacturers, and resellers, on the other hand, while seemingly part of cost to the end user, are in actuality simply the oil on the gears of a machine. Profit is society's way of insuring someone will make another tool. Otherwise the Virginia Farmer stops everything, digs a mine, smelts his ore, forges his wrench, and fixes his plow. Just in time for winter.
And the industrialist does WHAT with these funds?
Look, if you want to get on some Soviet era rant at least complete a few courses in economics before you don your Che Guevara hat and start spewing Marxist rhetoric.
But mostly, just go find somewhere else.