But if "Grandma" is going to be running Linux, I suppose she can probably get along quite well with OpenOffice 2.4, that comes already set up for her out of the box in Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10. Point is kind of moot there.
The point is only moot if you missed it. The point wasn't open office, open office was an example to illustrate a point: you can't download software and install it as easily on linux as you can on windows.
Oh sure, I did some searching, saw some tutorials, but my point is that it isn't ready for grandma until you've moved past these issues and she can go download software for "linux" and have it just work (at least most of the time), at least as well as it does for windows.
Just a note, when Dell first brought out Ubuntu laptops a few years ago, I bought one. With the exception of an update bug when it first came out that near bricked it (but which was easily fixed), I've had hardly any problems with it. The biggest issue I have with linux on my laptop is that, unlike my desktop machine (which runs XP Pro 64bit) I can't just go to, say, the openoffice website, download an installer, double click it, click next a few times, and have some new software to play with. The lack of a universal standardized software install process is still a big drawback for desktop linux imo.
That said, I can install the 2.4 OO out of the package manager and that serves my needs just fine.
My favorite was when they demanded respect without having earned it. Naturally, those least deserving respect were the ones who insisted on this the most.
It is really kind of pathetic, because they were more concerned with the trappings of respect then with the genuine article. Style over substance, the core of modern American culture.
Well, I think the problem is that people looked at the fact that High School diplomas meant you get better jobs, and so they said "Well gosh, the answer is obviously that more people need high school diplomas." The problem, of course, is that instead of getting better at teaching, they took the easy way out and made things way easier. Now, a High School diploma is a joke, and for a while a BS or BA was the new diploma, so then they dumbed down those degrees. Now, having a BS or BA doesn't mean shit as far as education goes, all it means to people is "you can finish four years of school."
Everyone knows its a problem, but there is not enough incentive to change things for the better, and strong incentives against many of the better methods (mostly related to cost, somewhat related to our cultural insistance on never telling someone they've failed).
I'm harsh with them (and thus "fucking idiots") because it should have been obvious to anyone with a brain that I was grasping the material with no problem. I would frequently blow tests and quizes out of the water, and of course did very well on the standardized tests. To anyone who was paying attention, even an average person off the street, it would have been obvious that what I needed was not to sit there quietly, bored literally to tears (to the point of having what, in retrospect, was a nervous breakdown in 4th grade), but to keep my mind busy while the more average students had their repetition.
I find it sad and pathetic (and I understand the reasons why) that we have programs for students who are behind the curve or somehow retarded, but there are no real programs for truly gifted students. Sadly, the blame for this lies on the shoulders of the parents more than anyone else, because of course everyone's kid is "gifted and talented."
If I ever get around to having kids, it is my sincere hope that I can afford to home school them, as I doubt anyone who shares a mixed genetic line from me and my girlfriend will be able to get along in the drone factories that pass for schools these days.
I had the opposite problem of you and the poster below when I got to college. The classes, in my experience, were just as easy as they were in high school, and the boredom factor was just as prevalent. Even today as long as I show up for classes and pay a moderate amount of attention I can pull As and Bs out.
I don't say that to brag, but to point out that for someone like me, an activity like doodling that helps occupy my brain during informational lulls is extremely helpful, and as a child having that activity cut off was extremely damaging to my mental health and general attitude toward school and authority figures. These days, when I'm taking classes I bring my laptop with me, connect to the campus wireless network, and browse the web while the lecturer repeats the information on the inevitable power point slide several times. Then, when they move to a new slide I read it, listen for a moment, and once I'm satisified I go back to the computer.
I don't consider something explained until it has been fully explained. Once it has, I almost always get it. Sometimes, a teacher thinks they are explaining something but they aren't, or they're only giving part of the explanation, or they're just doing it wrong in general. In those cases, I press them for more information.
Generally though, school is designed for the lowest common denominator, and so the concepts being communicated are so simple that it would be hard NOT to get it in one go.
We were talking about music. Also, everyone knows Puddle of Mudd is the worst band to ever claim to be making music while actually delivering a sonic assault that, if used in war, would violate the all articles of the Geneva convention simultaneously.
I understand things the first time I hear them in almost all cases. This has been true since childhood. As a direct result, the normal teaching style in most gradeschools (say something, then repeat it in slightly different ways many many times) was nearly unbearably boring for me. I would try and allieviate this boredom by doodling, and this often got me in trouble.
I'd like to go back and find the fucking idiots who wouldn't just leave me alone and let me draw and show them this article.
On that note, lets smile now that we know exactly why video surveillance of all the population will cause as much problem for the 'law' as it will for anyone else.
Except that when the video tapes catch cops breaking the law, they're much more likely to mysteriously break themselves for the period of time in question. Like the video surveilance tapes of the subway in the UK when those cops executed that guy for being brown and wearing a jacket a few years ago.
Hmm. Well, you could be right. I have an idea, though.
Lets test it! We'll use this lie detector method on congress, the supreme court, and the president. Any time they're acting in their official capacity, they have to wear the lie detector rig (or stand next to it if it is too big), and it'll have a big red light that lights up every time it detects a lie.
If this thing is good enough to use in criminal cases, it is certainly good enough to use to help ensure that the electorate isn't being lied to, right?
Since the last decade has been the warmest one on record, and since violent knify stabbing crimes are up in the UK, it is obvious that young people stabbing each other in the UK is causing global warming. Thus, people in the UK should no longer be allowed to have children. I'm looking forward to seeing the text of the legislation that the Prime Minister will be introducing on this important topic.
This sounds more like the plot to a bad Grisham novel than a realistic scenario. Police will look for likely suspects, and the corporation flooding the market with Buddy Christ statues a few days after Kevin Smith died in a mysterious car accident would probably end up pretty high on the list. It seems to me that a corporation that would use these kind of tactics to secure IP are going to do it regardless of a change like the above described.
Of course, I like the idea of 18 year copyright terms, with a single 18 year extension for works that surpass, say, the median amount of per-unit sales. If that last clause causes too much complication, then just leave it at the initial 18 years.
If we had that, I'd immidiately sit down and start writing that Star Trek novel I've always wanted to pen.
Not really. You can still contract with someone to create for you, under the terms that they will license to you at X rate whatever creative work they produce on a specific project. It just means that you have to keep paying them if you want to keep using whatever it is they produced (or you have to hammer them with a nasty contract and risk litigation).
The first thing I thought of when I saw TFA was Space: Above and Beyond, from back in the mid-90s. It certainly had some weak points, but I would definitely have been interested in seeing more of it.
I would have agreed with you on this one a year ago, but then I was given the series as a boxed set (it was, thankfully, on clearance sale) and I watched the whole thing from beggining to end.
I have to say, it definitely had an interesting start, but having seen the whole thing now, I'm glad it was canceled. The writing was horrible, and while some shows can be carried through a given amount of bad writing by a really good cast (Heroes, BSG), Space: Above and Beyond just simply didn't have the talent at any level. The metaplot didn't make any sense (the evil corporation started a war with some aliens by sending colonies to planets that were owned by those aliens, even though they knew the aliens were militarily superior to Earth in every way). The people playing AIs seemed to be recruited straight from the set of a bad porno (as far as acting and looks). The show never established any feeling of place, dimension, or distance. Travel time was always exactly equal to what was needed to make the ham fisted plot move forward, and every time they had a burial scene it was another dose of God and Jesus time, I guess because only Christians were allowed to serve in the armed forces?
They also had a bad case of BSG "Our Pilots do everything syndrome," with trained pilots constantly being sent on ground missions, special forces ops, etc. I can't think of any examples of this happening in the modern military, and its a horrible waste of time and resources training someone to pilot a space fighter and then sending them into ground combat.
To sum up, sometimes when they cancel these shows, it is for a good reason. Sadly, too often they simply kill good shows for no reason, but Space: Above and Beyond isn't the best example of this.
All things considered Firefly is probably the safest ship in its universe
You really don't know Joss Whedon very well do you? He'd blow it up if it would make a good way to prevent two of his characters from having more than a week or so of happiness together.
You can always split the difference by crossing out the part where they get to pick the guy and writing in that YOu get to pick it, then signing that part and making sure you keep a carbon of the document with the modifications on it. Then enjoy the look of surprise on their face when they find out your mom is arbitrating the malpractice claim.
So you have some kind of evidence of child abuse (be it sexual or otherwise), then you have a prosecution. Congratulations, where does shutting down a section of craigslist come into this? Oh, you have no evidence of this actually happening, no actually damaged or hurt children? Then you're just another scare monger trying to stop the bleeding by covering it with a curtain.
If you really want to think of the children, maybe you ought to take all this evidence you have of child abuse to a DA's office and see if you can get the ball rolling there.
An intelligent person would want this stuff on craigslist, where it is all made into a nice easy searchable electronic database that can be easily monitored, logged, and used in court with a minimum of fuss. It looks to me like this sherrif simply doesn't understand the technology and his lawyers told him he might be able to make a quick buck suing craigslist.
They have to sell at MSRP because if they discount too much, too often they'll get the retailers in a tizzy. If that happens, people will pull games from the platform so as not to piss off their traditional distribution model.
First you need to come up with a way to distribute "linux" versions of software that work on any flavor/distro and install as easily as software does in windows.
I use Ubuntu on my laptop and generally its fine, but it drives me crazy having to jump through a bunch of hoops to install, say, openoffice 3. On my windows machine, I just download the installer, run it, click next a lot, and I'm done. In ubuntu... not nearly that straightforward. One of the reasons linux isn't ready for the desktop.
I somehow doubt this is going to be much of an issue. Chances are much higher for something like damage from thermal expansion/contraction from driving in and out of shadows to do in a rover, or getting that nasty abrasive moon dust into the moving parts.
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But if "Grandma" is going to be running Linux, I suppose she can probably get along quite well with OpenOffice 2.4, that comes already set up for her out of the box in Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10. Point is kind of moot there.
The point is only moot if you missed it. The point wasn't open office, open office was an example to illustrate a point: you can't download software and install it as easily on linux as you can on windows.
I wouldn't mind that in WOW.
Triva note: The announcer woman and GLaDOS are the same voice actor!
Oh sure, I did some searching, saw some tutorials, but my point is that it isn't ready for grandma until you've moved past these issues and she can go download software for "linux" and have it just work (at least most of the time), at least as well as it does for windows.
Just a note, when Dell first brought out Ubuntu laptops a few years ago, I bought one. With the exception of an update bug when it first came out that near bricked it (but which was easily fixed), I've had hardly any problems with it. The biggest issue I have with linux on my laptop is that, unlike my desktop machine (which runs XP Pro 64bit) I can't just go to, say, the openoffice website, download an installer, double click it, click next a few times, and have some new software to play with. The lack of a universal standardized software install process is still a big drawback for desktop linux imo.
That said, I can install the 2.4 OO out of the package manager and that serves my needs just fine.
My favorite was when they demanded respect without having earned it. Naturally, those least deserving respect were the ones who insisted on this the most.
It is really kind of pathetic, because they were more concerned with the trappings of respect then with the genuine article. Style over substance, the core of modern American culture.
Well, I think the problem is that people looked at the fact that High School diplomas meant you get better jobs, and so they said "Well gosh, the answer is obviously that more people need high school diplomas." The problem, of course, is that instead of getting better at teaching, they took the easy way out and made things way easier. Now, a High School diploma is a joke, and for a while a BS or BA was the new diploma, so then they dumbed down those degrees. Now, having a BS or BA doesn't mean shit as far as education goes, all it means to people is "you can finish four years of school."
Everyone knows its a problem, but there is not enough incentive to change things for the better, and strong incentives against many of the better methods (mostly related to cost, somewhat related to our cultural insistance on never telling someone they've failed).
I'm harsh with them (and thus "fucking idiots") because it should have been obvious to anyone with a brain that I was grasping the material with no problem. I would frequently blow tests and quizes out of the water, and of course did very well on the standardized tests. To anyone who was paying attention, even an average person off the street, it would have been obvious that what I needed was not to sit there quietly, bored literally to tears (to the point of having what, in retrospect, was a nervous breakdown in 4th grade), but to keep my mind busy while the more average students had their repetition.
I find it sad and pathetic (and I understand the reasons why) that we have programs for students who are behind the curve or somehow retarded, but there are no real programs for truly gifted students. Sadly, the blame for this lies on the shoulders of the parents more than anyone else, because of course everyone's kid is "gifted and talented."
If I ever get around to having kids, it is my sincere hope that I can afford to home school them, as I doubt anyone who shares a mixed genetic line from me and my girlfriend will be able to get along in the drone factories that pass for schools these days.
I had the opposite problem of you and the poster below when I got to college. The classes, in my experience, were just as easy as they were in high school, and the boredom factor was just as prevalent. Even today as long as I show up for classes and pay a moderate amount of attention I can pull As and Bs out.
I don't say that to brag, but to point out that for someone like me, an activity like doodling that helps occupy my brain during informational lulls is extremely helpful, and as a child having that activity cut off was extremely damaging to my mental health and general attitude toward school and authority figures. These days, when I'm taking classes I bring my laptop with me, connect to the campus wireless network, and browse the web while the lecturer repeats the information on the inevitable power point slide several times. Then, when they move to a new slide I read it, listen for a moment, and once I'm satisified I go back to the computer.
I don't consider something explained until it has been fully explained. Once it has, I almost always get it. Sometimes, a teacher thinks they are explaining something but they aren't, or they're only giving part of the explanation, or they're just doing it wrong in general. In those cases, I press them for more information.
Generally though, school is designed for the lowest common denominator, and so the concepts being communicated are so simple that it would be hard NOT to get it in one go.
We were talking about music. Also, everyone knows Puddle of Mudd is the worst band to ever claim to be making music while actually delivering a sonic assault that, if used in war, would violate the all articles of the Geneva convention simultaneously.
I understand things the first time I hear them in almost all cases. This has been true since childhood. As a direct result, the normal teaching style in most gradeschools (say something, then repeat it in slightly different ways many many times) was nearly unbearably boring for me. I would try and allieviate this boredom by doodling, and this often got me in trouble.
I'd like to go back and find the fucking idiots who wouldn't just leave me alone and let me draw and show them this article.
On that note, lets smile now that we know exactly why video surveillance of all the population will cause as much problem for the 'law' as it will for anyone else.
Except that when the video tapes catch cops breaking the law, they're much more likely to mysteriously break themselves for the period of time in question. Like the video surveilance tapes of the subway in the UK when those cops executed that guy for being brown and wearing a jacket a few years ago.
Hmm. Well, you could be right. I have an idea, though.
Lets test it! We'll use this lie detector method on congress, the supreme court, and the president. Any time they're acting in their official capacity, they have to wear the lie detector rig (or stand next to it if it is too big), and it'll have a big red light that lights up every time it detects a lie.
If this thing is good enough to use in criminal cases, it is certainly good enough to use to help ensure that the electorate isn't being lied to, right?
Since the last decade has been the warmest one on record, and since violent knify stabbing crimes are up in the UK, it is obvious that young people stabbing each other in the UK is causing global warming. Thus, people in the UK should no longer be allowed to have children. I'm looking forward to seeing the text of the legislation that the Prime Minister will be introducing on this important topic.
This sounds more like the plot to a bad Grisham novel than a realistic scenario. Police will look for likely suspects, and the corporation flooding the market with Buddy Christ statues a few days after Kevin Smith died in a mysterious car accident would probably end up pretty high on the list. It seems to me that a corporation that would use these kind of tactics to secure IP are going to do it regardless of a change like the above described.
Of course, I like the idea of 18 year copyright terms, with a single 18 year extension for works that surpass, say, the median amount of per-unit sales. If that last clause causes too much complication, then just leave it at the initial 18 years.
If we had that, I'd immidiately sit down and start writing that Star Trek novel I've always wanted to pen.
It obsoletes the concept of a "work for hire".
Not really. You can still contract with someone to create for you, under the terms that they will license to you at X rate whatever creative work they produce on a specific project. It just means that you have to keep paying them if you want to keep using whatever it is they produced (or you have to hammer them with a nasty contract and risk litigation).
The first thing I thought of when I saw TFA was Space: Above and Beyond, from back in the mid-90s. It certainly had some weak points, but I would definitely have been interested in seeing more of it.
I would have agreed with you on this one a year ago, but then I was given the series as a boxed set (it was, thankfully, on clearance sale) and I watched the whole thing from beggining to end.
I have to say, it definitely had an interesting start, but having seen the whole thing now, I'm glad it was canceled. The writing was horrible, and while some shows can be carried through a given amount of bad writing by a really good cast (Heroes, BSG), Space: Above and Beyond just simply didn't have the talent at any level. The metaplot didn't make any sense (the evil corporation started a war with some aliens by sending colonies to planets that were owned by those aliens, even though they knew the aliens were militarily superior to Earth in every way). The people playing AIs seemed to be recruited straight from the set of a bad porno (as far as acting and looks). The show never established any feeling of place, dimension, or distance. Travel time was always exactly equal to what was needed to make the ham fisted plot move forward, and every time they had a burial scene it was another dose of God and Jesus time, I guess because only Christians were allowed to serve in the armed forces?
They also had a bad case of BSG "Our Pilots do everything syndrome," with trained pilots constantly being sent on ground missions, special forces ops, etc. I can't think of any examples of this happening in the modern military, and its a horrible waste of time and resources training someone to pilot a space fighter and then sending them into ground combat.
To sum up, sometimes when they cancel these shows, it is for a good reason. Sadly, too often they simply kill good shows for no reason, but Space: Above and Beyond isn't the best example of this.
All things considered Firefly is probably the safest ship in its universe
You really don't know Joss Whedon very well do you? He'd blow it up if it would make a good way to prevent two of his characters from having more than a week or so of happiness together.
You can always split the difference by crossing out the part where they get to pick the guy and writing in that YOu get to pick it, then signing that part and making sure you keep a carbon of the document with the modifications on it. Then enjoy the look of surprise on their face when they find out your mom is arbitrating the malpractice claim.
So you have some kind of evidence of child abuse (be it sexual or otherwise), then you have a prosecution. Congratulations, where does shutting down a section of craigslist come into this? Oh, you have no evidence of this actually happening, no actually damaged or hurt children? Then you're just another scare monger trying to stop the bleeding by covering it with a curtain.
If you really want to think of the children, maybe you ought to take all this evidence you have of child abuse to a DA's office and see if you can get the ball rolling there.
An intelligent person would want this stuff on craigslist, where it is all made into a nice easy searchable electronic database that can be easily monitored, logged, and used in court with a minimum of fuss. It looks to me like this sherrif simply doesn't understand the technology and his lawyers told him he might be able to make a quick buck suing craigslist.
they placed a big red arrow that says "hooker" over the prostitute's heads.
Finally, a good use for augmented reality rigs!
They have to sell at MSRP because if they discount too much, too often they'll get the retailers in a tizzy. If that happens, people will pull games from the platform so as not to piss off their traditional distribution model.
First you need to come up with a way to distribute "linux" versions of software that work on any flavor/distro and install as easily as software does in windows.
I use Ubuntu on my laptop and generally its fine, but it drives me crazy having to jump through a bunch of hoops to install, say, openoffice 3. On my windows machine, I just download the installer, run it, click next a lot, and I'm done. In ubuntu... not nearly that straightforward. One of the reasons linux isn't ready for the desktop.
I somehow doubt this is going to be much of an issue. Chances are much higher for something like damage from thermal expansion/contraction from driving in and out of shadows to do in a rover, or getting that nasty abrasive moon dust into the moving parts.