I think the question is, which will benefit our society more:
a) Very bright students given chances they wouldn't have before, sparked to think of new ways to tackle old challenges
b) Average students who will, despite getting average marks in pre-calculus senior year of high school will likely simply go to college for a liberal arts degree and work in a mail room, as an office assistant, a salesperson, or so on
c) Below average students who now that we wasted our smart kids' talent can now solve for x where x+2 = 5. They then drop out half way through, and end up at a fast-food joint, or at a technical college where they will learn how to fix cars, agricultural sciences, or other low-academic high-skill work.
It's not hard to figure out where we'll get the best bang for our buck. The hard part is picking the diamonds out of the rough that is block b and c, that really are very smart - but due to lousy performance measurement techniques are grouped with those who do not have the same thirst for knowledge.
By not investing in the smart, bright kids in school we are effectively saying,
"OK, we've got all these awesome computers, an infiniban interconnect, petabytes of storage and terabytes of memory.. theoretically we could probably get about 82 teraflops out of the system. Let's install Windows ME."
It was basically like going to another science/math class where you still had no control over what you were learning.
It was another droll lecture that promised more rote memorization than before, without the spark of curiosity that makes the student sit up, look around them, and wonder Why Does It Do That. It's a fundamental problem with our education system (based on education patterns from 19th century Germany, by the way - the focus of which was good soldiers, good factory workers. Not good scientists, historians, mathematicians, inventors).
One of the symptoms of this problem is ADD. Some kids with ADD are unusually bright, and some kids with ADD aren't. The kids that aren't usually can be tracked to environmental causes - TV as a babysitter, not much attention as a small child and thus the propensity to act out, caffeine, et cetera. The kids that are unusually bright usually get it via genetics.
The difference is, one ends up not doing well in school but is obviously very bright - sometimes landing an excellent job that interests them greatly. If they're lucky. The other ends up not doing well in school and working at burger king. A lot of times, the same thing happens to the former.
And it's all because we don't separate our thinkers from our drones at an early age, methinks.
You'd think a site with articles on good coding style would use quietly degrading links, instead of anchor tags with javascript in their href field. I tried to middle click them to open in new tabs, but was completely let down!
I'm fairly sure the goal of the designers is that most builds are viable but once you get people hardcore min/maxing it that easily breaks, especially if the combat situations don't change enough to require different skillsets for each.
That's what automated testing is for. It's fairly easy to programmatically figure out all possible combinations and test against all other possible combinations. And then graph the results.
That's the HTML rendering engine. That only happens when:
The page is loaded
The DOM structure is changed
A previously visible element is hidden, or vice versa
Size of an element changes
The more important benchmark, especially for applications like google docs and other pseudo-application applications is the rewritten JavaScript engine in Opera 9.5, which is indeed extremely fast.
Yah, but FFXI was one of the worst grinding games out there. With the proposed system, you could get to 'average' level / power in a matter of days, not in a matter of years like with FFXI. Plus, there would have to be some skill involved -- I remember playing FFXI a few years ago and literally falling asleep at my computer while our group pulled stuff in some desert or another. I woke up a half hour later with my group congratulating me on how well I did.
Kevlar is relatively easy to slice. Kevlar vests, for example, protect quite well against bullets. Knives and shrapnel, on the other hand, go through it quite easily. I remember reading somewhere (no reference - sorry!) that a thick leather jacket was more protection against a knife than a kevlar vest.
When I was shopping for a car about four years ago, I looked at two different hatchbacks. A Golf from the mid-90's, and a '93 Civic.
The Civic handled better, was more comfortable, and imho had nicer lines. The Golf had a funky clutch, was hard and uncomfortable to sit in, and looked like crap even though it was in fine condition. It handled okay, but the clutch was just weird.
Yet we've spent 500 billion dollars in Iraq.
Just imagine, that could have been 500 billion dollors in government grants to pharmaceutical research! It could have been saving people instead of killing millions! It could have fed the continent of africa for x amount of years.. yadayadayada.
That's because the power curve of the game moved as the game matured, and settled at 60, then 70 or whatever. 80% of the characters are utilizing 20% of the level range, if even that.
The fix for it, of course, is to somehow keep the power curve a distributed bell curve with a majority of the people being average. There are many ways to fix this, but the problem is coming up with a solution that won't piss the ever loving hell out of everyone who plays the game. One way would be to make the "heritage" of the character important, where you gather stuff for your line of characters instead of for your single one.. but the flip side of that is each character you make can permanently die.
It's the big conundrum so many MMOs face as they age. And nobody has put something out there to fix it. Except maybe - maybe - Eve, where corporations are bigger than anything else in the game, and the game is about, well... looking at spreadsheets.
I completely agree - Sometimes, however, the small symptoms are evidence of a larger malady in any system, from our government to the BSA to that intermittent itch between the toes. I was merely providing this as an anecdote.
Kids that bully others are talked to, put on probation, or otherwise given a second chance.
Man, I wish they did this in the troop I was a part of. Unfortunately it was the only one around, and the most the scoutmasters would do about bullying was, "Put up and deal with it. Grow some skin and be a man, you pansy" (paraphrased). When you're the smallest kid in the troop it's kind of hard to believe in the teachings of something when the troop - a supposed community of role models - consistently acts opposite to the organization's spirit.
I think part of the reason was because most of the kids in the troop were sent there to learn how to behave in an honest, honorable manner. They were problem kids. Unfortunately, some of the worst problem kids were the kids of the scoutmasters - and every parent knows their kid can do no wrong.
If it had been different, I might have continued with it past first class.
They changed the BSA oath / promise after the takeover by the mormon church. The original oath (1908) went like this:
On my honour I promise that---
I will do my duty to God and the Queen.
I will do my best to help others, whatever it costs me.
I know the scout law, and will obey it.
What's interesting is Baden-Powell (the originator of the Boy Scouts) provided an alternate oath for scouts who could not use the above due to conscientious reasons: the Outlander Promise.
On my honour, I promise that I will do my best,
To render service to my country;
To help other people,
And to keep the Scout Law.
The current rendition of the Scout Oath includes a line about morally straight. I don't remember what the official original definition of this was when it was first introduced to the Oath, but it had made no reference to homosexuality at all. In fact, of the 26 definitions of "straight," only one of them refers to heterosexuality. Most of them deal with things being in an unadulterated state. One definition even aligns its self precisely with what the Scouts should stand for: "honest, honorable, or upright, as conduct, dealings, methods, or persons."
In my opinion, it is impossible to be morally straight whilst discriminating against homosexuals and athiests. Discriminatory acts are by definition dishonest and dishonorable. Even the teachings of the book so many boy scouts hold as sacred include a very important message of tolerance. Jesus (the mythical figure he is) did break bread with whores, tax collectors, lepers, and so on. In fact, his crucification is entirely symbolic of the ultimate tolerance: he died the same way a murderer and thief did.
Yeah, but private companies - unlike private organizations and clubs - are prohibited from discriminating against employees based on religion and sexual orientation among many other things (I just chose those two because that's what the BSA does).
No - many scout troops will not allow a boy to join if he is an athiest. They will also not allow athiest scoutmasters. This is a dramatic change from the way the scouts used to be run. The change happened about the same time the mormon church took over the association.
I won't support the BSA until they change back; many scout troops meet in public buildings for little or no rent (schools, government buildings); the federal government allows the scouts to use an army base for their national jamboree for $1; yet they are not beholden to the same anti-discriminatory laws as every single other freakin' government-sponsored organization (you can't be sent home from public school because you're gay or athiest).
Slashdot Mirror
a) Very bright students given chances they wouldn't have before, sparked to think of new ways to tackle old challenges
b) Average students who will, despite getting average marks in pre-calculus senior year of high school will likely simply go to college for a liberal arts degree and work in a mail room, as an office assistant, a salesperson, or so on
c) Below average students who now that we wasted our smart kids' talent can now solve for x where x+2 = 5. They then drop out half way through, and end up at a fast-food joint, or at a technical college where they will learn how to fix cars, agricultural sciences, or other low-academic high-skill work.
It's not hard to figure out where we'll get the best bang for our buck. The hard part is picking the diamonds out of the rough that is block b and c, that really are very smart - but due to lousy performance measurement techniques are grouped with those who do not have the same thirst for knowledge.
By not investing in the smart, bright kids in school we are effectively saying,
One of the symptoms of this problem is ADD. Some kids with ADD are unusually bright, and some kids with ADD aren't. The kids that aren't usually can be tracked to environmental causes - TV as a babysitter, not much attention as a small child and thus the propensity to act out, caffeine, et cetera. The kids that are unusually bright usually get it via genetics.
The difference is, one ends up not doing well in school but is obviously very bright - sometimes landing an excellent job that interests them greatly. If they're lucky. The other ends up not doing well in school and working at burger king. A lot of times, the same thing happens to the former.
And it's all because we don't separate our thinkers from our drones at an early age, methinks.
Seriously. It sounds like their team wasn't properly taking time to maintain and refactor their code to ensure smooth future development.
You'd think a site with articles on good coding style would use quietly degrading links, instead of anchor tags with javascript in their href field. I tried to middle click them to open in new tabs, but was completely let down!
Which, of course, means that everyone we aren't sure about ends up being one. Win-win. /tongue-in-cheek
- The page is loaded
- The DOM structure is changed
- A previously visible element is hidden, or vice versa
- Size of an element changes
The more important benchmark, especially for applications like google docs and other pseudo-application applications is the rewritten JavaScript engine in Opera 9.5, which is indeed extremely fast.Yah, but FFXI was one of the worst grinding games out there. With the proposed system, you could get to 'average' level / power in a matter of days, not in a matter of years like with FFXI. Plus, there would have to be some skill involved -- I remember playing FFXI a few years ago and literally falling asleep at my computer while our group pulled stuff in some desert or another. I woke up a half hour later with my group congratulating me on how well I did.
We had all gone up half a level.
We had spent four hours there.
Err; this was precisely my point.
Sorry, I forgot to note /facetious!
Kevlar is relatively easy to slice. Kevlar vests, for example, protect quite well against bullets. Knives and shrapnel, on the other hand, go through it quite easily. I remember reading somewhere (no reference - sorry!) that a thick leather jacket was more protection against a knife than a kevlar vest.
When I was shopping for a car about four years ago, I looked at two different hatchbacks. A Golf from the mid-90's, and a '93 Civic.
/2cents
The Civic handled better, was more comfortable, and imho had nicer lines. The Golf had a funky clutch, was hard and uncomfortable to sit in, and looked like crap even though it was in fine condition. It handled okay, but the clutch was just weird.
Guess which one I went with?
Yet we've spent 500 billion dollars in Iraq. Just imagine, that could have been 500 billion dollors in government grants to pharmaceutical research! It could have been saving people instead of killing millions! It could have fed the continent of africa for x amount of years.. yadayadayada.
That's because the power curve of the game moved as the game matured, and settled at 60, then 70 or whatever. 80% of the characters are utilizing 20% of the level range, if even that.
The fix for it, of course, is to somehow keep the power curve a distributed bell curve with a majority of the people being average. There are many ways to fix this, but the problem is coming up with a solution that won't piss the ever loving hell out of everyone who plays the game. One way would be to make the "heritage" of the character important, where you gather stuff for your line of characters instead of for your single one.. but the flip side of that is each character you make can permanently die.
It's the big conundrum so many MMOs face as they age. And nobody has put something out there to fix it. Except maybe - maybe - Eve, where corporations are bigger than anything else in the game, and the game is about, well... looking at spreadsheets.
Pssh, Rainz'll take him out sooner or later.
I completely agree - Sometimes, however, the small symptoms are evidence of a larger malady in any system, from our government to the BSA to that intermittent itch between the toes. I was merely providing this as an anecdote.
Yeah, popcorn. And wrapping paper. Christ, why the fuck did we sell wrapping paper? Silly.
I define god as Science, and I will do my best to do my duty to it!
I think part of the reason was because most of the kids in the troop were sent there to learn how to behave in an honest, honorable manner. They were problem kids. Unfortunately, some of the worst problem kids were the kids of the scoutmasters - and every parent knows their kid can do no wrong.
If it had been different, I might have continued with it past first class.
In my opinion, it is impossible to be morally straight whilst discriminating against homosexuals and athiests. Discriminatory acts are by definition dishonest and dishonorable. Even the teachings of the book so many boy scouts hold as sacred include a very important message of tolerance. Jesus (the mythical figure he is) did break bread with whores, tax collectors, lepers, and so on. In fact, his crucification is entirely symbolic of the ultimate tolerance: he died the same way a murderer and thief did.
That's a camp - not a regular weekly or biweekly meeting of kids. BSA has camps, but it also provides local community.
Yeah, but private companies - unlike private organizations and clubs - are prohibited from discriminating against employees based on religion and sexual orientation among many other things (I just chose those two because that's what the BSA does).
No - many scout troops will not allow a boy to join if he is an athiest. They will also not allow athiest scoutmasters. This is a dramatic change from the way the scouts used to be run. The change happened about the same time the mormon church took over the association.
I won't support the BSA until they change back; many scout troops meet in public buildings for little or no rent (schools, government buildings); the federal government allows the scouts to use an army base for their national jamboree for $1; yet they are not beholden to the same anti-discriminatory laws as every single other freakin' government-sponsored organization (you can't be sent home from public school because you're gay or athiest).
It's bullshit (thanks, Penn & Teller).
Those explain how, not why...