valuing these individuals known as teachers and paying them a decent, livable wage
Here in the Northeast US, median salaries for public school kindergarten teachers with 3-5 years' experience is in the mid $40's. Median salaries for secondary school teachers with MA/MS degrees and 10 years' experience is $65-70. Top-step teachers in many states earn over $80k. This is for 6.5 hours/day and 180 days per year.
Just something to think about. The camera can be remarkable for conveying accurate truths, or for conveying convincing lies.
And, as you point out, has been for some time. I know it's heresy here to recommend an actual book, but it's been nearly twelve years (holy shit!) since the publication of William Mitchell's groundbreaking The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. ISBN 0262631601 for those who might be interested.
I happened to watch most of Wednesday's hearings on TV (thank you, C-SPAN!) and was quite impressed with the nature of the questions the chairman was asking. He certainly gave the impression of being quite well-informed (or at least well-briefed), and asked quite a few really pointed questions, particularly of the vendors.
The moment I enjoyed the most was when he very harshly dressed down one of the vendors, which had sent a board member who wasn't involved in day-to-day operations (having retired) and admitted he couldn't answer some of the questions posed to him. At the end of that segment, the chairman said something like "If we hold further such hearings, I would hope your company will see fit to send someone who actually goes to work every day."
at all the mutation jokes and all the stupid "in Soviet Russia" jokes (even though Chornobyl is not in Russia), take a look at the site of an organization that's actually doing something to help. Maybe even donate some money. This remains a human tragedy of massive proportions.
In keeping with a 50-year-old trend, the latest computers from [insert name here] are faster and more powerful than the previous generation. Wow. There's news.
Why do web "designers" persist in thinking that they know what size font looks better
Because these guys, at least, have a Design Patent on it, fer Chrissake! Look at the bottom of the page -- it has a copyright, two different kinds of patents and a trademark. So who was asking what's wrong with IP law these days?
Of course they have made some improvements over the years, but these things are going to have a mighty impressive return on investment over the course of their lifetimes. Much more so than your average desktop PC which (if your running Windows) needs (is required) to be replaced every couple of years or so.
While I am also a fan of IBM mainframes (we've had numerous mainframes that have had up-time measured in years), in all fairness, they have to be replaced periodically as well. Not because they're no longer capable of doing the job, but because after a while, IBM will take them "off maintenance", or will take an old rev of the OS (or VTAM, or NCP, or CICS) "off maintenance" and it just turns out that the current supported level will not run on your box. IBM has to make money, too. And any company that can afford a mainframe and needs one to run its core business would no more run an unsupported OS than you would go to work without your pants. So maybe the upgrade cycle isn't as short as PC's, but I'd bet you have almost no chance of finding a 15-year-old MVS box running any business anywhere.
The point of the analogy is, microsoft just looks at the numbers and makes the best business decision.
Welcome to Econ101, AC. This is exactly what they're supposed to do, and precisely what their shareholders expect. If they did any different, they'd be violating their fiduciary duty.
You say MS doesn't care about the ethical component, as if they're violating some trust. A corporation is by its nature amoral. It is supposed to be. Its one and only responsibility is to maximize value to shareholders.
nobody has been able to come up with a better (or even comparable) replacement
I call bullshit. How old are you? How many PC software products in that space do you remember? Javelin was both excellent and revolutionary. Lotus Improv was close (but not close enough) to a GUI Javelin. Both used the spreadsheet paradigm as a sort ow "window" into real data. Both failed because the average PC-using simpleton wanted the "simplicity" of 1-2-3. 1-2-3 was overtaken by Excel because their GUI versions sucked worse than Excel did, and then once Excel got a foothold, the MS juggernaut took over. But there were "comparable" and better replacements 10 or more years ago. Strange as it may seem now, there once was an actual abundance of choice in "office productivity" applications.
At current list prices, the software is already more expensive than the hardware in the server space. Microsoft Windows 2003 Enterprise Server lists for $4k with 25 Client Access Licenses (CALs). Each additional 20 CALS costs $799. So an approximately 100-user server will run you over $7k (at list) for MS software licensing. Dell or HP will sell you quite a nice server for less than $7k.
Spare me the obligatory replies about how much cheaper you can do all this with white-box hardware and Linux -- I'm not talking about that, I'm trying to add context to BillG's pronunciamento.
Why is violating the NY Times' copyright considered "Informative"? Regardless of how the tin-foil hat crowd feels about the Times' registration policy (feed them a fake name, fer chrissake!) or how the whole/. herd feels about the current state of US copyright law, the Times actually pays people a salary to write, edit and publish this stuff, and they (IMO) have a right to say how it can be re-published. Posting the full text of their work on an unrelated site is not "fair use".
I meant to say, of course, that the word "privacy" is not part of the name of the Act. Duh. "Preview" didn't prevent me from saying something I didn't mean.
Well, unfortunately, it's HIPAA, not HIPPA, which is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The word "privacy" does not appear in the act, which is located here. In fact, the abstract of the law does not mention privacy at all, it merely says:
"To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve access to long-term care services and coverage, to simplify the administration of health insurance, and for other purposes."
Your friendly neighborhood public library still doesn't treat you like a criminal. Amazing as it sounds, you can walk in and ask for a book, and they'll lend it to you.
Not only books. My neighborhood public library will lend me DVD movies and audio CD's. Imagine how the ??AA must feel about that.
One case where I can say "my tax dollars at work" and feel good about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Here in the Northeast US, median salaries for public school kindergarten teachers with 3-5 years' experience is in the mid $40's. Median salaries for secondary school teachers with MA/MS degrees and 10 years' experience is $65-70. Top-step teachers in many states earn over $80k. This is for 6.5 hours/day and 180 days per year.
By my accounting, this is a decent, livable wage.
And, as you point out, has been for some time. I know it's heresy here to recommend an actual book, but it's been nearly twelve years (holy shit!) since the publication of William Mitchell's groundbreaking The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. ISBN 0262631601 for those who might be interested.
The moment I enjoyed the most was when he very harshly dressed down one of the vendors, which had sent a board member who wasn't involved in day-to-day operations (having retired) and admitted he couldn't answer some of the questions posed to him. At the end of that segment, the chairman said something like "If we hold further such hearings, I would hope your company will see fit to send someone who actually goes to work every day."
That's fast...
It's like at the bar -- the later in the night you attempt to pick up chicks, the fewer of them are still available.
at all the mutation jokes and all the stupid "in Soviet Russia" jokes (even though Chornobyl is not in Russia), take a look at the site of an organization that's actually doing something to help. Maybe even donate some money. This remains a human tragedy of massive proportions.
That's Chornobyl, not Chernobyl. Yes, it matters, because it's a Ukrainian town, not Russian.
In keeping with a 50-year-old trend, the latest computers from [insert name here] are faster and more powerful than the previous generation. Wow. There's news.
You must mean "how to do arithmetic", not "how to do math". Calculators automate arithmetic, not mathematics.
Jobs? Humble?
"You must be new here"
Because these guys, at least, have a Design Patent on it, fer Chrissake! Look at the bottom of the page -- it has a copyright, two different kinds of patents and a trademark. So who was asking what's wrong with IP law these days?
You and your big mouth. Now it's up to 3, Interesting.
Shee-it, if the Red Sox win the World Series, I'll make the f'ing Hall of Fame. IOW, probability = 0.
...and the warmth of von Karajan...
While I am also a fan of IBM mainframes (we've had numerous mainframes that have had up-time measured in years), in all fairness, they have to be replaced periodically as well. Not because they're no longer capable of doing the job, but because after a while, IBM will take them "off maintenance", or will take an old rev of the OS (or VTAM, or NCP, or CICS) "off maintenance" and it just turns out that the current supported level will not run on your box. IBM has to make money, too. And any company that can afford a mainframe and needs one to run its core business would no more run an unsupported OS than you would go to work without your pants. So maybe the upgrade cycle isn't as short as PC's, but I'd bet you have almost no chance of finding a 15-year-old MVS box running any business anywhere.
whenever I see "[whatever] in Space" of the old Muppets "Pigs in Spaaaaace!" .
You mean like MS's infusion of US$1.6bn in Sun?
Welcome to Econ101, AC. This is exactly what they're supposed to do, and precisely what their shareholders expect. If they did any different, they'd be violating their fiduciary duty.
You say MS doesn't care about the ethical component, as if they're violating some trust. A corporation is by its nature amoral. It is supposed to be. Its one and only responsibility is to maximize value to shareholders.
I call bullshit. How old are you? How many PC software products in that space do you remember? Javelin was both excellent and revolutionary. Lotus Improv was close (but not close enough) to a GUI Javelin. Both used the spreadsheet paradigm as a sort ow "window" into real data. Both failed because the average PC-using simpleton wanted the "simplicity" of 1-2-3. 1-2-3 was overtaken by Excel because their GUI versions sucked worse than Excel did, and then once Excel got a foothold, the MS juggernaut took over. But there were "comparable" and better replacements 10 or more years ago. Strange as it may seem now, there once was an actual abundance of choice in "office productivity" applications.
Spare me the obligatory replies about how much cheaper you can do all this with white-box hardware and Linux -- I'm not talking about that, I'm trying to add context to BillG's pronunciamento.
Why is violating the NY Times' copyright considered "Informative"? Regardless of how the tin-foil hat crowd feels about the Times' registration policy (feed them a fake name, fer chrissake!) or how the whole /. herd feels about the current state of US copyright law, the Times actually pays people a salary to write, edit and publish this stuff, and they (IMO) have a right to say how it can be re-published. Posting the full text of their work on an unrelated site is not "fair use".
I meant to say, of course, that the word "privacy" is not part of the name of the Act. Duh. "Preview" didn't prevent me from saying something I didn't mean.
"To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve access to long-term care services and coverage, to simplify the administration of health insurance, and for other purposes."
Sure. Linux good; Microsoft bad; SCO evil; RMS god. Oh, and spam is bad.
Not only books. My neighborhood public library will lend me DVD movies and audio CD's. Imagine how the ??AA must feel about that.
One case where I can say "my tax dollars at work" and feel good about it.