Maybe the problem is with the franchise. It seems so-last-decade. Reality is so much more interesting than silver liquid robots from the future.
I could never accept that in the two seasons barely any mention was made of the forces that are really behind robotic and large database development. It was as if DARPA, the defense industry, the "war on terror", the growth of domestic surveillance, insatiable corporate data aggregation, battlefield robots and drones in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc., didn't exist. The series had ample opportunities to be relevant and insightful about human psychology, social trends and politics. But it wasn't.
WHO gave "craploads" to teachers unions? Those vastly over paid teachers? Or are you claiming some secret back door from the government because THAT would be worth a laugh. The people we do know got a crap load of money were the banks, investment companies, etc., who have spent the last 20 years sending their back office operations, research departments, telemarketing and customer service offshore.
You scream about letting the market work but when it does, you don't like it. You complain about taxes, pay the teachers dirt and wonder why you didn't get wonderful results. Oh, wait! You have "studies" showing that increased school budgets don't bring better results. Amazing, just amazing how that argument is never used against CEOs and investment bankers. Boo hoo, if we don't pay them enough the best and brightest will run off to Dubai!
You blame some poor schnook doing their best for 35k/yr because they can't compensate for the sins of parents who pass on to their kids the attitude that the "piece of paper" is the only important thing. Or a society that wholly devalues and is embarrassed by academic achievement. Or the array of ipods, text messaging, facebook, and other trivialities that mommy and daddy buy for their precious offspring and allow them use without consequence.
You set up and continue a dysfunctional system of local schools supported largely by community property taxes so that the difference between going to a public high school in Bethesda, MD and Washington, DC is comparable to going to school at Choate Academy and a village in Angola. And then you bemoan 50% drop out rates and the that 2/3rds of school children can't find their state on a map.
Yeah, blame it on the teachers unions. That's really where the problem is.
We passed onerous environmental and labor laws encouraging companies to abandon the US.
Right those nasty workers and their unions again. Imagine them wanting to work in places with basic safety measures and living in communities that aren't poisoned by their employers. Because, oddly enough, it NEVER seems to be the CEO's house that sits atop the toxic waste dump.
We have strong unions getting massive benefits at the cost of the consumer and the citizen.
Oh Lordy, do I EVER know what you mean! Who would have thought that 7% of the private sector that belongs to unions could cause SUCH problems. My god, they show up in doctor's offices now! You just can't get reservations at Spago anymore. And skiing at Vale, well don't get me started!
Laugh all you want but here in the US our Government can't compel us to turn over an encryption key and detain American citizens for 45 (or is it 90 now?)
So what? 90% of what they want to know is who you communicate with and how often. Encryption won't help you much there.
I hope we can stay away from the temptations to localize this behavior to one country. Let's face it, it is going on pretty much everywhere now. It's just a matter of degree and how much information about it has been leaked out to the public.
This is rather idiotically expressed but it is not an unimportant fact.
Because of the One Child policy and the preference for boys there are around 60 million more males than females. The men who won't end up with wives are very likely to be poor, under educated, and angry. Add chronically horny and frustrated on top of that and you have a problem that is likely going to manifest itself somehow, somewhere in an ugly manner.
In addition, my understanding is that he is putting a lot more money into intel-gathering. That makes sense.
Part of that intel gathering is, of course, the half of our recent ramp-up in cyber warfare that is less spoken about. No one thinks that in the cyber war we are only playing defense, right?
Your example with a film is flawed because there is essentially no difference between the cinema or a DVD other than the size of the screen. There is a considerable difference between a degree from the University of Phoenix and, say, the University of Cambridge though.
That's not the point. The comparison is between U. of X's campus program versus its online program. As technology improves and more schools put larger portions of their resources into online programs the only difference between the two could very well be "the size of the screen".
True but is this a real market i.e. do employers take these qualifications seriously or is it just that people have the impression that they take them seriously?
There are always transition periods. If online programs continue to progress employers will increasingly accept them.
They may also be simply forced to accept the economic reality of the situation. Current university costs are beyond the means of most people and statistics are showing that many people aren't getting a return on their investment. More people are questioning the value of college versus a lifetime of debt. Toss in the millions of adults who are working and either want to supplement their education or switch careers but have scheduling constraints. If online programs provide nearly the same value at a fraction of the cost employers will quickly become less snooty about the delivery method if they want a workforce.
The OP's point that simply because they are able to do this makes it a good idea is ludicrous.
I think his point was that was that there is a huge market and since it is becoming viable it is a good way to serve that market.
Hence my assertion that IT will assist and improve but not supplant face-to-face teaching.
I guess we will find out. I think the business model isn't in your favor. Current school costs are not sustainable and don't adequately serve the non-traditional age student. It's not unlike the movies. You can still travel, show up at the appropriate time and pay $13 for a marginally richer experience. But many more people will stay home and watch the dvd when they want for $3.
Don't you think that you should say something about the quality of the education they offer?
Why? It should be inferred. He is talking about legitimate schools. You think the U. of Minn is going to turn into a diploma mill because they offer online classes?
However to think that they will completely replace face to face education is insane.
By face-to-face I assume you mean where you can see the professor's face with aid of binoculars and occasionally talk to a TA?
There are some disciplines that would be hard to do online - primarily the hard sciences - but decent communications technology could provide an experience not vastly different than being on campus at Mega U.
My main concern with online education and programs such as the University of Phoenix is one of quality.
Well if that is your main concern you haven't looked at their tuition rates.
Seriously, there is no reason to believe that quality institutions won't deliver a quality product online. It's not as if MIT is going to offer the same credit for a online class as a on-campus class and make it 1/4th as difficult. The quality of the institution matters, not the delivery method.
And although there are more "experienced" students at universities than there were in the past, in my experience at four differnt universities suggests that your stereotypical college student, fresh out of high school, is the norm.
Precisely because most non-traditional aged students can't take the time off from adult life to attend! There is a huge unserviced population out there that online schools can address.
Sorry, that's wrong. Donahue's rating were very poor early on but progressively got better during the war build up. At the time they canceled the show it was MSNBC's number one show. As the NY Times, among many others, documented at the time: "Mr. Donahue's show had been growing slightly over the past few months, and he was actually attracting more viewers than any other show on MSNBC".
I mean...if a liberal talk show guy can't even make it on THAT network....well...
MSNBC was anything but liberal then. At best they were a bunch of corporate lackeys desperately trying to figure out how to create an audience. So they killed their best show at the time because they thought it was politically astute. Idiots. It was only years later that they accidentally tripped into Olbermann and Maddow.
why are people trying to watch MLB on their work computers in the first place?
Have you ever watched or listened to a baseball game? It's been the chosen background noise of America since the 1930s. It's not like a lot happens that is going to disrupt your work.
everyone major three letter government agency has their own 'cyber taskforce
This is first and foremost a turf war over a potentially huge budget. Broadly speaking the battles are between civilian and military agencies but an incredible amount of infighting is being waged within each group.
It's not clear what the White House is thinking here. I rather doubt it is a naked power grab. More likely they are looking either to (a) park this in the White House until things shake out and calm down or (b) are looking to set up something akin to the National Security Council framework to oversee things.
Recognizing that most Slashdotters have not been in relationships it might be appropriate to point out that not all battering victims are female. There are plenty of violent women in this society beyond the occasional crazy female astronaut who drives cross country in diapers.
I suspect he is. That's not a slam, just a recognition of the human condition.
The problem with sheep isn't only that they are easily herded but that they have short memories too. You can occasionally freak out the herd and make them break ranks but as soon as order is restored they forget about it. That's effectively how humans handle crises though the time frame is larger than with sheep.
The difference between something like Facebook and the banking system differ less in dynamics than scale. Consider that banking in this country has a rather dismal record of minor collapses every decade or so and major ones every fifty or sixty years. And every time people freak out until some kind of equilibrium re-emerges. And then the issue recedes in memory until the next inevitable crisis. Facebook is the same situation writ small.
The real problem is the the herd just wants stability but there is a great financial incentive (be it with Facebook or the financial system) for a small group of actors to push the boundaries again after the herd has settled down. Facebook will try some other tactic to get what it wants and so will the bankers. And we will all be back here again some point down the road.
Are you trying to claim that those 7.6%...are so important we should spend a trillion dollars we don't have to make them happy?
First of all, a better measure of unemployment puts it at 13.9%. Yes, that is 14 out of 100 people who are recently unemployed, long unemployed, or for all intents and purposes unemployed.
Second, read a little about a deflationary cycle. There are good reasons why economists who looked at the current situation have universally shit their pants.
Third, stop thinking you are doing other people a favor. You are doing yourself a favor. There are a hundred ways that this situation can bite your ass if it isn't brought under control. And I guarantee you will be singing a different tune then.
viewing the request to keep and track dna, you can simply see the evolution of police work
Is this an evolution? Any forward looking LEO should think twice in terms of their job security and salaries. If solving crime devolves to part janitor (acquiring samples) and part clerk (pushing buttons on a pre-formed SQL query) pretty much any monkey could do it. Cheaply.
Slashdot Mirror
Or... You know we could actually have sane tax reform where you simply pay for what you use and you don't have to pay if you don't want to use it.
How is that even remotely viable?
terminator franchise
Maybe the problem is with the franchise. It seems so-last-decade. Reality is so much more interesting than silver liquid robots from the future.
I could never accept that in the two seasons barely any mention was made of the forces that are really behind robotic and large database development. It was as if DARPA, the defense industry, the "war on terror", the growth of domestic surveillance, insatiable corporate data aggregation, battlefield robots and drones in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc., didn't exist. The series had ample opportunities to be relevant and insightful about human psychology, social trends and politics. But it wasn't.
No, something else besides level of technicality needs to explain why people are willing to pay for the WSJ.
Tax deduction for investors?
And other than being a classic example of a self-selected population it demonstrates nothing.
According to the BLS the unemployment rate is 8.5%
We did ALOT! (sic)
WHO gave "craploads" to teachers unions? Those vastly over paid teachers? Or are you claiming some secret back door from the government because THAT would be worth a laugh. The people we do know got a crap load of money were the banks, investment companies, etc., who have spent the last 20 years sending their back office operations, research departments, telemarketing and customer service offshore.
You scream about letting the market work but when it does, you don't like it. You complain about taxes, pay the teachers dirt and wonder why you didn't get wonderful results. Oh, wait! You have "studies" showing that increased school budgets don't bring better results. Amazing, just amazing how that argument is never used against CEOs and investment bankers. Boo hoo, if we don't pay them enough the best and brightest will run off to Dubai!
You blame some poor schnook doing their best for 35k/yr because they can't compensate for the sins of parents who pass on to their kids the attitude that the "piece of paper" is the only important thing. Or a society that wholly devalues and is embarrassed by academic achievement. Or the array of ipods, text messaging, facebook, and other trivialities that mommy and daddy buy for their precious offspring and allow them use without consequence.
You set up and continue a dysfunctional system of local schools supported largely by community property taxes so that the difference between going to a public high school in Bethesda, MD and Washington, DC is comparable to going to school at Choate Academy and a village in Angola. And then you bemoan 50% drop out rates and the that 2/3rds of school children can't find their state on a map.
Yeah, blame it on the teachers unions. That's really where the problem is.
We passed onerous environmental and labor laws encouraging companies to abandon the US.
Right those nasty workers and their unions again. Imagine them wanting to work in places with basic safety measures and living in communities that aren't poisoned by their employers. Because, oddly enough, it NEVER seems to be the CEO's house that sits atop the toxic waste dump.
We have strong unions getting massive benefits at the cost of the consumer and the citizen.
Oh Lordy, do I EVER know what you mean! Who would have thought that 7% of the private sector that belongs to unions could cause SUCH problems. My god, they show up in doctor's offices now! You just can't get reservations at Spago anymore. And skiing at Vale, well don't get me started!
Laugh all you want but here in the US our Government can't compel us to turn over an encryption key and detain American citizens for 45 (or is it 90 now?)
So what? 90% of what they want to know is who you communicate with and how often. Encryption won't help you much there.
The irony is that it was written by a Brit.
I hope we can stay away from the temptations to localize this behavior to one country. Let's face it, it is going on pretty much everywhere now. It's just a matter of degree and how much information about it has been leaked out to the public.
This is rather idiotically expressed but it is not an unimportant fact.
Because of the One Child policy and the preference for boys there are around 60 million more males than females. The men who won't end up with wives are very likely to be poor, under educated, and angry. Add chronically horny and frustrated on top of that and you have a problem that is likely going to manifest itself somehow, somewhere in an ugly manner.
In addition, my understanding is that he is putting a lot more money into intel-gathering. That makes sense.
Part of that intel gathering is, of course, the half of our recent ramp-up in cyber warfare that is less spoken about. No one thinks that in the cyber war we are only playing defense, right?
Your example with a film is flawed because there is essentially no difference between the cinema or a DVD other than the size of the screen. There is a considerable difference between a degree from the University of Phoenix and, say, the University of Cambridge though.
That's not the point. The comparison is between U. of X's campus program versus its online program. As technology improves and more schools put larger portions of their resources into online programs the only difference between the two could very well be "the size of the screen".
True but is this a real market i.e. do employers take these qualifications seriously or is it just that people have the impression that they take them seriously?
There are always transition periods. If online programs continue to progress employers will increasingly accept them.
They may also be simply forced to accept the economic reality of the situation. Current university costs are beyond the means of most people and statistics are showing that many people aren't getting a return on their investment. More people are questioning the value of college versus a lifetime of debt. Toss in the millions of adults who are working and either want to supplement their education or switch careers but have scheduling constraints. If online programs provide nearly the same value at a fraction of the cost employers will quickly become less snooty about the delivery method if they want a workforce.
The OP's point that simply because they are able to do this makes it a good idea is ludicrous.
I think his point was that was that there is a huge market and since it is becoming viable it is a good way to serve that market.
Hence my assertion that IT will assist and improve but not supplant face-to-face teaching.
I guess we will find out. I think the business model isn't in your favor. Current school costs are not sustainable and don't adequately serve the non-traditional age student. It's not unlike the movies. You can still travel, show up at the appropriate time and pay $13 for a marginally richer experience. But many more people will stay home and watch the dvd when they want for $3.
Don't you think that you should say something about the quality of the education they offer?
Why? It should be inferred. He is talking about legitimate schools. You think the U. of Minn is going to turn into a diploma mill because they offer online classes?
However to think that they will completely replace face to face education is insane.
By face-to-face I assume you mean where you can see the professor's face with aid of binoculars and occasionally talk to a TA?
There are some disciplines that would be hard to do online - primarily the hard sciences - but decent communications technology could provide an experience not vastly different than being on campus at Mega U.
My main concern with online education and programs such as the University of Phoenix is one of quality.
Well if that is your main concern you haven't looked at their tuition rates.
Seriously, there is no reason to believe that quality institutions won't deliver a quality product online. It's not as if MIT is going to offer the same credit for a online class as a on-campus class and make it 1/4th as difficult. The quality of the institution matters, not the delivery method.
And although there are more "experienced" students at universities than there were in the past, in my experience at four differnt universities suggests that your stereotypical college student, fresh out of high school, is the norm.
Precisely because most non-traditional aged students can't take the time off from adult life to attend! There is a huge unserviced population out there that online schools can address.
Someone has to ask: at this point are we really sure that the elected representatives are really in control?
such a noob, everyone knows one of the stargates was destoryed.
Yeah, as if Stargate Command was dumb enough to give back all the Stargates that Ba'al was collecting and not keep a few spares!
p.s. Was that a type-o or actually meant to be de-story-ed.
Thank you Sheldon. Now stop hogging the wi-fi.
Who cares about Area 51? Everyone knows the Stargates are in Cheyenne Mountain and antarctica.
Phil lost his show due fully to dismal ratings.
Sorry, that's wrong. Donahue's rating were very poor early on but progressively got better during the war build up. At the time they canceled the show it was MSNBC's number one show. As the NY Times, among many others, documented at the time: "Mr. Donahue's show had been growing slightly over the past few months, and he was actually attracting more viewers than any other show on MSNBC".
I mean...if a liberal talk show guy can't even make it on THAT network....well...
MSNBC was anything but liberal then. At best they were a bunch of corporate lackeys desperately trying to figure out how to create an audience. So they killed their best show at the time because they thought it was politically astute. Idiots. It was only years later that they accidentally tripped into Olbermann and Maddow.
why are people trying to watch MLB on their work computers in the first place?
Have you ever watched or listened to a baseball game? It's been the chosen background noise of America since the 1930s. It's not like a lot happens that is going to disrupt your work.
everyone major three letter government agency has their own 'cyber taskforce
This is first and foremost a turf war over a potentially huge budget. Broadly speaking the battles are between civilian and military agencies but an incredible amount of infighting is being waged within each group.
It's not clear what the White House is thinking here. I rather doubt it is a naked power grab. More likely they are looking either to (a) park this in the White House until things shake out and calm down or (b) are looking to set up something akin to the National Security Council framework to oversee things.
A battered wife may need to talk to a relative...
Recognizing that most Slashdotters have not been in relationships it might be appropriate to point out that not all battering victims are female. There are plenty of violent women in this society beyond the occasional crazy female astronaut who drives cross country in diapers.
You're not addressing the sheeple you imagine.
I suspect he is. That's not a slam, just a recognition of the human condition.
The problem with sheep isn't only that they are easily herded but that they have short memories too. You can occasionally freak out the herd and make them break ranks but as soon as order is restored they forget about it. That's effectively how humans handle crises though the time frame is larger than with sheep.
The difference between something like Facebook and the banking system differ less in dynamics than scale. Consider that banking in this country has a rather dismal record of minor collapses every decade or so and major ones every fifty or sixty years. And every time people freak out until some kind of equilibrium re-emerges. And then the issue recedes in memory until the next inevitable crisis. Facebook is the same situation writ small.
The real problem is the the herd just wants stability but there is a great financial incentive (be it with Facebook or the financial system) for a small group of actors to push the boundaries again after the herd has settled down. Facebook will try some other tactic to get what it wants and so will the bankers. And we will all be back here again some point down the road.
Are you trying to claim that those 7.6%...are so important we should spend a trillion dollars we don't have to make them happy?
First of all, a better measure of unemployment puts it at 13.9%. Yes, that is 14 out of 100 people who are recently unemployed, long unemployed, or for all intents and purposes unemployed.
Second, read a little about a deflationary cycle. There are good reasons why economists who looked at the current situation have universally shit their pants.
Third, stop thinking you are doing other people a favor. You are doing yourself a favor. There are a hundred ways that this situation can bite your ass if it isn't brought under control. And I guarantee you will be singing a different tune then.
viewing the request to keep and track dna, you can simply see the evolution of police work
Is this an evolution? Any forward looking LEO should think twice in terms of their job security and salaries. If solving crime devolves to part janitor (acquiring samples) and part clerk (pushing buttons on a pre-formed SQL query) pretty much any monkey could do it. Cheaply.