Actually, being an apprentice - unpaid, low-paid or otherwise, is the best way to learn. Such a form of learning was commonplace in the last century and may have its benefits. The student doesn't get to goof around and you end up working with people who are really applying their knowledge to earn their living - this normally translates to mean that you deal with people who know what they are talking about. Also, the practitioner who is employing should have the ability to sack you if you goof around and don't pull your weight. But once your graduate, you will already know others in the field who are working and they may be able to employ you.
As you gain experience and skill, you could then take tests which will make you eligible to employ apprentices.
This is not to imply that all educators don't know what they are talking about, but one must admit that the quality of educators has declined considerably. Many of those who teach now will barely survive in industry because they just don't have the skills. This is just the hard truth.
There are some courses where the student must necessarily sign up as an apprentice under a practitioner. The Chartered Accountancy degrees (similar to the CPA) is an example. I think it has worked out quite well so far.
And one more thing - there is a reason why students don't care to learn as much as they should. I can speak for my country India. Here it is difficult to get admission into a course such as engineering but it is fairly easy to get a degree and graduate once you make it through the door. I think this doesn't make sense.
I think getting into an academic environment should be easy, but it should be very difficult to graduate; the tests and the exams should be very tough and only allow the best to make it through.
Bill Gates is right. The $100 laptop is useless atleast here in India where I live. The primary assumption behind this laptop is that if you give the poor access to computing power, that it would somehow magically improve their lot. Not so.
The poor need things like a suitable place to stay, good food, protection from touts who harass them for the little money they own, and jobs.
NOTE: I do not mention literacy here because it is, quite frankly, overrated. I know a lot of people here in India who can barely read or write but who are wealthy because they have the clout to push things through and have the right connections. Here in India, the people with the most power will rule and will get wealthier while others even if they are literate/educated stand a high chance of losing out.
I don't see how this laptop addresses any of these problems.
India has its own nuclear reactors - including indigneously developed ones. The nuclear deal is primarily intended to allow India to purchase nuclear fuel including the rights to reprocess fuel.
True. Now the people expect the government and the society to take care of them when they themselves will do nothing to help the government or the society around them.
Individualism is glorified - its all about me and my need and the society can go to hell; that is, unless I am in need and now the society / government / neighbour must do everything to help me.
Whatever I choose to do is my right and no one can either question me or criticize me - because that would mean that they are violating my rights or causing me emotional harm.. but I shall retain all rights to question / criticize / mock other people and their beliefs because that is also my fundamental right.
This hypocrisy is glorified daily. Selfishness is considered a prime virtue and is often equated to an assertive go-getting nature.
One other thing - this is not just an American attitude. I fear that it might actually be across the world.
It is just that during the Katrina crisis, we could see extreme displays of this general attitude.
I mean, it takes a certain type of selfish moor to shoot at rescue helicopters in an attempt to prevent these helicopters from rescuing other people. It also takes a certain type of idiot to loot and pillage half-dead / suffering people both of which happenned.
My advice is - Don't release your product under a dual license. It leads to all kinds of problems and the chance of commercial success is somewhat limited. I suggest that you consider one of the following options:
Option 1: Basic version under GPL with commercial extensions / plugins - You release the basic framework and the base set of functionality under GPL. - You release a set of closed-source extensions / plugins under a commercial license. Ofcourse, your existing system must have support for loading plugins at run time and some sort of plugin registration / installation option.
Option 2: The full version is released closed-source but is sold at a low price. Also include a free / limited evaluation version. This option may, infact, be a better option. This allows people who want to test out your software to do that without spending money (evaluation version) and also keeps the entry-barrier (cost) low for others. Examples where this has succeeded: Enterprise Architect product from Sparx Systems. It is an excellent product but yet priced so low that it basically ate up its more feature-rich and well-entrenched but expensive competition.
I am presently working with someone on conducting a study on the effects of cellphone on humans and I do agree with you that there are good reasons to believe that cellphone do, infact, increase incidence of cancer and tumours. Please note that the effects do not seem to be limited just to the user, there is some evidence to indicate that people at close proximity to the user are also affected.
If the army believes video games can lower the mental barriers when it comes to killing people, and also increases accuracy, I think then the answer is a resounding yes - Video games train killers.
I know a lot of people are going to jump at this comment, but if you are comfortable shutting your eyes to reality, thats your call. But I am not.
Take Two / Rockstar are not victims by a long shot. Are you saying that Take Two didn't know that someone would figure out a way of modding the game to show the hotcoffee parts? I mean, come on! if there is a hidden easter egg type of thing in a game, someone is going to find it.. I am sure Take Two knew that..
Take Two released these parts hidden to escape the rating system, but nonethess with full knowledge that that it would be modded by someone to show these parts and that this would drammatically increase its popularity among adolescents, so in essence they were trying to subvert the system.
I see the point you are making and I do agree with most things you have said. However, it seems to me that you (like the GP) are trying too hard to impress people on this forum with your intelligence. The GP has opted to show off by stating his IQ, while you have tried to impress by using some over-the-top fancy grammar and language. You could have stated your points using much simpler language.
People went from being hunter gatherers to nomadic farmers who used a slash and burn type of farming where they cleared parts of forests by cutting down trees and burning them. They then cultivated that area for a season before moving onto a new area. You can still see this happening in different parts of the world - in South America, in parts of India.
It is only much later that people started re-cultivating the same land; once they became familiar with stuff like crop rotation.
So talking about plains - most plains were formed when forests were cut down or swamps were cleared by humans. That is to say that it was a result of people clearing forests and not because they were driven out of it. So in that sense, I don't believe humans were necessarily losers.
Courts in India are often over zealous when it comes to computer related issues and quite often issue orders which are rediculous. This is mostly because the court has a very superficial understanding about computer technology.
The cops are no better. For example, in Chennai, they recently banned the playing on LAN games at Netcafes in the city. By "they" I mean the cops. I don't see what authority the cops have to ban anything in this country as they certainly don't have any legislative powers but these things happen a lot in India.
Quite often the boundaries between what a court can do, what the legislature can do and what the police can do is very faint or completely blurred in India. For instance, the supreme court in India mandated that all public transportation buses in Delhi must be converted to run on natural gas. I don't see how that is even allowed since the supreme court does not have any legislative powers.
There is a mountain range (Western Ghats) running in a roughly north south direction in the south of India. This mountain range acts as a barrier and prevents the south-west monsoon winds from reaching parts of the east and as a consequence the south-west regions of India typically get more rain than the south-east sections.
About population density - it is true that the south-west has a higher population density that the south-east, but you must see this from the perspective that the density of population in the east is not low by any definition.
Being a "rebel" is not the same as either being retarded or rude. This student could have made his points clear without resorting to abuse. One rule of thumb to remember is this - what you cannot tell a person straight to the face, don't publish on the web / email / chat etc.
I agree with you completely. Freedom of speech is not freedom to hurl abuse. This student had it coming for him. He could have opted to criticize his professor in a more professional manner but instead chose to behave like an adolescent brat and therefore deserves to be treated like one.
As much as I hate spam, I think a USD 11 billion fine is way over the top.
In the case of a suit brought against Doctors for malpractise or against corporations for deliberately causing harm to consumers, the compensation rarely goes past a few hundred million - and that only if there is massive damage to the health of the consumer. Sometimes even when thousands are killed, compensation / fine rarely exceeds a few million.
If you consider a case such as the Union Carbide case where thousands died in Bhopal India, the compensation paid out per head is infinitesmally small compared to this $11 B fine.
I cannot see how spam is more damaging than toxic gas.
There are people who have both lived exceptionally sacrificial lives and who have touched the lives of thousands because of their deep faith in God and His goodness. Mother Teresa is an example. She wasn't a "self-righteous prick" either.
Being religious, on the other hand, is about following a set of rules to be seen to be righteous before others while actually being full of crap on the inside. God is real and can be known.
I agree with you that religion is one of the most dangerous aspects of this world. I would , however, say that knowing God and living a life dedicated to God is different from being religious. Actually, I think if one truly lives a life dedicated to God, one cannot be religious.
Being religious is to be dogmatic. Knowing God, on the other hand, is having a relationship.
Thank you. I appreciate your taking the time to write this detailed explanation and more importantly I greatly appreciate the fact that you are not calling me any names or just trashing my comment. I state this because I have been modded down (unfairly) for comments like the one I made here by people who absolutely don't seem to grasp either evolutionary theory or ID or any other theory for that matter.
Are you suggesting that the theory of evolution is anywhere near as well proven as the round earth theory, atomic theory and special relativity?
Hint: You can see the earth is round if you just get into a plane, see a photograph taken from a space shuttle, watch other planets through the telescope etc. Contrast this with evolution - have you personally observed anything even remotely resembling macro-evolution? Well, you can't because it takes millions of years.. Scientists arrive at a "hypothesis" which is another name for a guess as to how different species may have evolved, but NO ONE has observed macro-evolution happening.
It is entirely possible that the theory of evolution is right, but frankly, there isn't enough evidence to say for sure.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, being an apprentice - unpaid, low-paid or otherwise, is the best way to learn. Such a form of learning was commonplace in the last century and may have its benefits. The student doesn't get to goof around and you end up working with people who are really applying their knowledge to earn their living - this normally translates to mean that you deal with people who know what they are talking about. Also, the practitioner who is employing should have the ability to sack you if you goof around and don't pull your weight. But once your graduate, you will already know others in the field who are working and they may be able to employ you.
As you gain experience and skill, you could then take tests which will make you eligible to employ apprentices.
This is not to imply that all educators don't know what they are talking about, but one must admit that the quality of educators has declined considerably. Many of those who teach now will barely survive in industry because they just don't have the skills. This is just the hard truth.
There are some courses where the student must necessarily sign up as an apprentice under a practitioner. The Chartered Accountancy degrees (similar to the CPA) is an example. I think it has worked out quite well so far.
And one more thing - there is a reason why students don't care to learn as much as they should. I can speak for my country India. Here it is difficult to get admission into a course such as engineering but it is fairly easy to get a degree and graduate once you make it through the door. I think this doesn't make sense.
I think getting into an academic environment should be easy, but it should be very difficult to graduate; the tests and the exams should be very tough and only allow the best to make it through.
Bill Gates is right. The $100 laptop is useless atleast here in India where I live. The primary assumption behind this laptop is that if you give the poor access to computing power, that it would somehow magically improve their lot. Not so.
/educated stand a high chance of losing out.
The poor need things like a suitable place to stay, good food, protection from touts who harass them for the little money they own, and jobs.
NOTE: I do not mention literacy here because it is, quite frankly, overrated. I know a lot of people here in India who can barely read or write but who are wealthy because they have the clout to push things through and have the right connections. Here in India, the people with the most power will rule and will get wealthier while others even if they are literate
I don't see how this laptop addresses any of these problems.
India has its own nuclear reactors - including indigneously developed ones. The nuclear deal is primarily intended to allow India to purchase nuclear fuel including the rights to reprocess fuel.
True. Now the people expect the government and the society to take care of them when they themselves will do nothing to help the government or the society around them.
Individualism is glorified - its all about me and my need and the society can go to hell; that is, unless I am in need and now the society / government / neighbour must do everything to help me.
Whatever I choose to do is my right and no one can either question me or criticize me - because that would mean that they are violating my rights or causing me emotional harm.. but I shall retain all rights to question / criticize / mock other people and their beliefs because that is also my fundamental right.
This hypocrisy is glorified daily. Selfishness is considered a prime virtue and is often equated to an assertive go-getting nature.
One other thing - this is not just an American attitude. I fear that it might actually be across the world.
It is just that during the Katrina crisis, we could see extreme displays of this general attitude.
I mean, it takes a certain type of selfish moor to shoot at rescue helicopters in an attempt to prevent these helicopters from rescuing other people. It also takes a certain type of idiot to loot and pillage half-dead / suffering people both of which happenned.
My advice is - Don't release your product under a dual license. It leads to all kinds of problems and the chance of commercial success is somewhat limited. I suggest that you consider one of the following options:
Option 1: Basic version under GPL with commercial extensions / plugins
- You release the basic framework and the base set of functionality under GPL.
- You release a set of closed-source extensions / plugins under a commercial license. Ofcourse, your existing system must have support for loading plugins at run time and some sort of plugin registration / installation option.
Option 2: The full version is released closed-source but is sold at a low price. Also include a free / limited evaluation version.
This option may, infact, be a better option. This allows people who want to test out your software to do that without spending money (evaluation version) and also keeps the entry-barrier (cost) low for others. Examples where this has succeeded: Enterprise Architect product from Sparx Systems. It is an excellent product but yet priced so low that it basically ate up its more feature-rich and well-entrenched but expensive competition.
I hope this helps.
I am presently working with someone on conducting a study on the effects of cellphone on humans and I do agree with you that there are good reasons to believe that cellphone do, infact, increase incidence of cancer and tumours. Please note that the effects do not seem to be limited just to the user, there is some evidence to indicate that people at close proximity to the user are also affected.
Why do people assume that having the right to own guns automatically ensures greater freedom?
If the army believes video games can lower the mental barriers when it comes to killing people, and also increases accuracy, I think then the answer is a resounding yes - Video games train killers.
I know a lot of people are going to jump at this comment, but if you are comfortable shutting your eyes to reality, thats your call. But I am not.
Take Two / Rockstar are not victims by a long shot. Are you saying that Take Two didn't know that someone would figure out a way of modding the game to show the hotcoffee parts? I mean, come on! if there is a hidden easter egg type of thing in a game, someone is going to find it.. I am sure Take Two knew that..
Take Two released these parts hidden to escape the rating system, but nonethess with full knowledge that that it would be modded by someone to show these parts and that this would drammatically increase its popularity among adolescents, so in essence they were trying to subvert the system.
To see the wild suppositions highly respected scientists make, please see the program Extraterrestrial on National Geographic.
I still cannot believe that Natgeo actually allowed that joke of a program to be broadcasted.
I see the point you are making and I do agree with most things you have said. However, it seems to me that you (like the GP) are trying too hard to impress people on this forum with your intelligence. The GP has opted to show off by stating his IQ, while you have tried to impress by using some over-the-top fancy grammar and language. You could have stated your points using much simpler language.
People went from being hunter gatherers to nomadic farmers who used a slash and burn type of farming where they cleared parts of forests by cutting down trees and burning them. They then cultivated that area for a season before moving onto a new area. You can still see this happening in different parts of the world - in South America, in parts of India.
It is only much later that people started re-cultivating the same land; once they became familiar with stuff like crop rotation.
So talking about plains - most plains were formed when forests were cut down or swamps were cleared by humans. That is to say that it was a result of people clearing forests and not because they were driven out of it. So in that sense, I don't believe humans were necessarily losers.
Courts in India are often over zealous when it comes to computer related issues and quite often issue orders which are rediculous. This is mostly because the court has a very superficial understanding about computer technology.
The cops are no better. For example, in Chennai, they recently banned the playing on LAN games at Netcafes in the city. By "they" I mean the cops. I don't see what authority the cops have to ban anything in this country as they certainly don't have any legislative powers but these things happen a lot in India.
Quite often the boundaries between what a court can do, what the legislature can do and what the police can do is very faint or completely blurred in India. For instance, the supreme court in India mandated that all public transportation buses in Delhi must be converted to run on natural gas. I don't see how that is even allowed since the supreme court does not have any legislative powers.
Hi there Rob! been a while. You doing ok?
There is a mountain range (Western Ghats) running in a roughly north south direction in the south of India. This mountain range acts as a barrier and prevents the south-west monsoon winds from reaching parts of the east and as a consequence the south-west regions of India typically get more rain than the south-east sections.
About population density - it is true that the south-west has a higher population density that the south-east, but you must see this from the perspective that the density of population in the east is not low by any definition.
Being a "rebel" is not the same as either being retarded or rude. This student could have made his points clear without resorting to abuse. One rule of thumb to remember is this - what you cannot tell a person straight to the face, don't publish on the web / email / chat etc.
I agree with you completely. Freedom of speech is not freedom to hurl abuse. This student had it coming for him. He could have opted to criticize his professor in a more professional manner but instead chose to behave like an adolescent brat and therefore deserves to be treated like one.
As much as I hate spam, I think a USD 11 billion fine is way over the top.
In the case of a suit brought against Doctors for malpractise or against corporations for deliberately causing harm to consumers, the compensation rarely goes past a few hundred million - and that only if there is massive damage to the health of the consumer. Sometimes even when thousands are killed, compensation / fine rarely exceeds a few million.
If you consider a case such as the Union Carbide case where thousands died in Bhopal India, the compensation paid out per head is infinitesmally small compared to this $11 B fine.
I cannot see how spam is more damaging than toxic gas.
There are people who have both lived exceptionally sacrificial lives and who have touched the lives of thousands because of their deep faith in God and His goodness. Mother Teresa is an example. She wasn't a "self-righteous prick" either.
Being religious, on the other hand, is about following a set of rules to be seen to be righteous before others while actually being full of crap on the inside. God is real and can be known.
Very true.
I agree with you that religion is one of the most dangerous aspects of this world. I would , however, say that knowing God and living a life dedicated to God is different from being religious. Actually, I think if one truly lives a life dedicated to God, one cannot be religious.
Being religious is to be dogmatic. Knowing God, on the other hand, is having a relationship.
Thank you. I appreciate your taking the time to write this detailed explanation and more importantly I greatly appreciate the fact that you are not calling me any names or just trashing my comment. I state this because I have been modded down (unfairly) for comments like the one I made here by people who absolutely don't seem to grasp either evolutionary theory or ID or any other theory for that matter.
Thanks again. This is food for thought.
An "executive" is different from an executable and the GP was referring to an "executive" - so it appears that you are the one without a clue.
Try Charlez Petzold's books:
http://www.charlespetzold.com/books.html/
Are you suggesting that the theory of evolution is anywhere near as well proven as the round earth theory, atomic theory and special relativity?
Hint: You can see the earth is round if you just get into a plane, see a photograph taken from a space shuttle, watch other planets through the telescope etc. Contrast this with evolution - have you personally observed anything even remotely resembling macro-evolution? Well, you can't because it takes millions of years.. Scientists arrive at a "hypothesis" which is another name for a guess as to how different species may have evolved, but NO ONE has observed macro-evolution happening.
It is entirely possible that the theory of evolution is right, but frankly, there isn't enough evidence to say for sure.