I haven't been following NWN's development from the beginning, but basically this is what I got from reading the FAQ, fansites, etc. in rough order of importance/hype:
1) "The toolset lets you make cool mods!" 2) "You can DM your mods as multiplayer games!" 3) "Oh yeah, there's this official campaign included, it was made with the toolset."
I didn't expect the OC to be BG2-quality, just enough to show off what you can do with the toolset. I think the fact that people are whining about the OC is mostly a case of having unrealistic/unwarranted expectations.
Mythic produced the game Dark Age of Camelot. There are actually 2 EULAs: one when you install the game, and another when you connect to the server to play.
Where are you buying your music? Most new CDs can be had at Target, Wal-Mart, etc. for $13-15, at least in my area.
Never mind the fact that with a CD, you're getting a lossless hard copy of the song(s), with cover art, liner notes, etc., which costs extra to produce.
Somehow I ended up on the US Army's list. One day, a recruiter called me, and once I realized who it was, I promptly hung up. A few seconds later, he called back, and asked in a rather angry voice, "Did you just hang up on me, son?"
I replied, "Yes, and I'm about to do it again."
He gave up after that. I would have loved to see the reaction on Capt. Tightass's face.
I would tend to agree with you, but the original poster made it sound like fanatical Islamofascism was representative of the whole religion, when that is definitely not the case.
These may not be "suicide bombings" but they are fueled by the same thing: fanatical hatred and intolerance.
Every religion -- even non-religion -- can have its zealots willing to do anything for "the cause." Your average Muslim, just like your average Christian, Jew, or atheist, is at least tolerant of other faiths. On the other hand, every religion has nutjobs that take its dogma to violent extremes.
It's human nature. People believe what they want to believe, especially if they feel threatened or marginalized. As the author alluded to, the Internet is just a more efficient conduit for pure garbage.
And, unfortunately in this case, we can't fight fire with fire. Spreading the "truth" will not convince the "believers," in fact it may make them even more incensed.
Just be glad you get to take any tech classes at all. My (in school) exposure to computers was -- until my junior year -- limited to Apple IIs and IBM PS/2s, on which we did keyboarding exercises. That's it. Keep in mind this is 1993 - 1995.
Beginning with my junior year, we finally got some Windows machines. The aforementioned clueless computer applications teacher guided us through exercises in Word and Excel, which I usually finished within 5 minutes and spent the rest of the time playing solitaire. Eventually the teacher realized that it was pointless for me to do the exercises, so he set me up with a machine with Borland Pascal on it, and told me to teach myself Pascal.
I'm glad to hear there is something in the way of tech classes at today's high schools, albeit taught by the same clueless teachers.
It's just a daycare center the government pays for.
Correction. The government doesn't pay for anything. The taxpayers are footing the bill for your babysitters.
Another thing about the exit exams. I don't know how they do it now, at your school, but when I took the math and reading tests as a junior, it would have been trivial for me to take the test for someone else, then take it for myself on one of the make-up days, given a large-enough incentive. Sadly, it would have taken more effort for me to barely pass (and not raise suspiscion because suddenly the class retard is getting high scores in math) than to get a score in the high 90s as I did.
I agree wholeheartedly. While I didn't have to deal with the inner-city situation you describe, I attended school in a relatively poor semi-rural district. I was bored stiff in class, so I did a lot of learning on my own, namely a lot of reading and assorted computer geekery.
There will always be exceptional students that go beyond what is given to them. I was describing the assembly-line mentality in our schools today, and the fact that a lot of less-motivated students fall through the cracks, getting a diploma without really receiving an education.
I think we can say the problem is twofold:
1) Our society does not value teaching as a profession very highly, both in esteem and financial compensation. This produces a set of teachers that are undermotivated.
2) We have become too focused on the results of learning, rather than the process. Kids (and their parents and teachers) want to "pass," whether or not this includes learning anything of value.
This is probably an oversimplification, but I think it holds true generally.
I'm a graduate student/teaching assistant at a large university. I get paid more than your wife per student-hour for 6 hours of "class" time per week, plus possibly 4 hours of administrative/prep/grading time. On top of my salary I get free tuition. I don't have to deal with middle school kids, only immature freshmen, and I don't pay a dime out of my own pocket. I'm technically less qualified to teach; my BA is in computer science, not education, although I think I do a pretty good job.
Is this fair? Probably not. But, based on my own experiences in public school, a large majority of teachers today are nothing but glorified babysitters, especially in high school. I had a few average teachers, fewer exceptional ones, and the rest were just there, going through the motions, and not getting through to their students.
A few were actually doing their students a disservice by teaching misinformation. My "computer applications" teacher in high school was under the impression that the Internet was invented at the University of Minnesota -- he had the entire Internet confused with the gopher protocol. (Keep in mind, this was in 1995-96.) I pointed his error out after class. He didn't believe me at first, but later he confessed privately to me that he didn't know what he was talking about, but did he announce his error to the class? Nope.
What's wrong with this picture? There is no incentive for teachers to perform well. It is damn near impossible to get a teacher fired, let alone reprimanded, for poor teaching. The ones who do well get a few intangible benefits, one of them being a better rapport with students, but nothing else.
Public schools these days are focused not on teaching children, but giving the appearance of teaching children. Kids take multiple-choice "competency tests" to prove their ability in math and reading comprehension, and teachers teach directly from these tests. "Pass the tests, kids, and you get a diploma! Oh, and you have to show up for class every once in a while." This is education?
I don't doubt your wife is an excellent teacher, but until she can convince her colleagues to pick up the slack, and taxpayers to cough up more money, and the administrators to stop giving themselves raises, she won't be seeing a larger salary.
I hope the public school situation improves before I have school-age children. There are some exceptional public schools in my area, but good luck finding one with class sizes in a reasonable range. I'd go for private school, but there are very few non-religious private schools (if any) in the area, and mandatory religion classes are not an option.
Please find the independent clauses in these sentences.
Well, and too expensive.
And occasionally used poor punctuation.
Deep breath, in, out, in, out.
Hint: There aren't any!
I'll admit my error in thinking the first sentence I brought up was a sentence fragment, but the fact remains, beginning multiple sentences with 'and' in the same paragraph makes for a particularly jarring paragraph.
I know Slashdot isn't -- and doesn't need to be -- perfect in terms of spelling and grammar, but using a sentence fragment to complain about a run-on sentence is a little much.
Minors (age less than 18) are forbidden by law in most (if not all) states from purchasing sexually explicit materials, be they videos, books, video games, whathaveyou. This also includes entry into strip clubs, sex shows, and brothels (where they are legal).
violent [...] videos/books
The industries police themselves, in most cases, where violent content is concerned. The MPAA movie rating system is voluntary, as is the ESRB video game rating system. It is not illegal to gain entry to an R-rated (age 17+) movie; it's only against the rules, and many underage people get away with it, if a particular theater chooses to enforce it at all. Same story with video games[1]. One exception to this may be television broadcasts; the FCC may have something to say about overly violent content, but I don't know if it is legally forbidden, or just "against the rules."
further more isn't this regarded as a good thing?
Not by all. I personally don't understand the double standard with sex vs. violence. If we declare sexual material to be dangerous to a young person's mind, why isn't violent material held up to the same standard, and forbidden by law?
Not to mention that any age limits are purely arbitrary and unfair. Emotional maturity is not a function of age. I also have a hard time believing that explicit sexual and/or violent content has an overwhelmingly adverse effect on young people. Let parents monitor their own children's behavior and make determinations for themselves. Rating systems are a nice "warning" for parents, but for stores, theaters, and the like to enforce them as anything but a recommendation is, well, silly.
Porn and Doom didn't turn my teenage self into a sex-crazed homicidal maniac. Maybe I didn't get enough!
[1] It may be that it is actually against the law for a store to sell a Mature video game to a minor, not sure.
Actually, they caught him. Mid 20s. Apparently burglarized a bunch of area homes, looking for loose change/cash and guns. You're probably right about the drugs, however.
Think that's trusting? Hell, my parents leave their keys in the ignition, just far enough not to trigger bells and whistles that remind you not to leave them there.
This really happened to us once: no one at home, garage door open, house doors locked, cars unlocked with keys in ignition. Thief breaks into house, ignores easily stealable cars, removes jar of loose change from my room after knocking over a plant or two.
I've read through most of the comments posted, and many refer to Hilary Rosen as "she," "her," etc.
I wonder if Mr. Rosen would be upset if he knew that a significant portion of Slashdot readers (and, possibly, the general population) thought he was a woman.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, what were you guys reading then?
I haven't been following NWN's development from the beginning, but basically this is what I got from reading the FAQ, fansites, etc. in rough order of importance/hype:
1) "The toolset lets you make cool mods!"
2) "You can DM your mods as multiplayer games!"
3) "Oh yeah, there's this official campaign included, it was made with the toolset."
I didn't expect the OC to be BG2-quality, just enough to show off what you can do with the toolset. I think the fact that people are whining about the OC is mostly a case of having unrealistic/unwarranted expectations.
Up until the release of NWN they were saying that the MAIN feature of the game was the single-player campaign
Who, exactly, was saying that?
Oh, right, you're just making that up. Sorry.
Geez, talk about missing the joke entirely.
Public Transportation in the USA: Clean, Reliable, Affordable. Choose None.
Mythic produced the game Dark Age of Camelot. There are actually 2 EULAs: one when you install the game, and another when you connect to the server to play.
NOTE: $10 per album is still half fucking price!
Where are you buying your music? Most new CDs can be had at Target, Wal-Mart, etc. for $13-15, at least in my area.
Never mind the fact that with a CD, you're getting a lossless hard copy of the song(s), with cover art, liner notes, etc., which costs extra to produce.
one of the best living musician touring these days
Is it possible for dead musicians to tour?
But, Scully, you contradict yourself!
Um, they couldn't have gotten on another interstate highway after I-95 to get there?
Unless, of course, I missed the part where they showed an I-95 sign in Texas, which is likely.
Somehow I ended up on the US Army's list. One day, a recruiter called me, and once I realized who it was, I promptly hung up. A few seconds later, he called back, and asked in a rather angry voice, "Did you just hang up on me, son?"
I replied, "Yes, and I'm about to do it again."
He gave up after that. I would have loved to see the reaction on Capt. Tightass's face.
I would tend to agree with you, but the original poster made it sound like fanatical Islamofascism was representative of the whole religion, when that is definitely not the case.
I beg to differ:
These may not be "suicide bombings" but they are fueled by the same thing: fanatical hatred and intolerance.
Every religion -- even non-religion -- can have its zealots willing to do anything for "the cause." Your average Muslim, just like your average Christian, Jew, or atheist, is at least tolerant of other faiths. On the other hand, every religion has nutjobs that take its dogma to violent extremes.
It's human nature. People believe what they want to believe, especially if they feel threatened or marginalized. As the author alluded to, the Internet is just a more efficient conduit for pure garbage.
And, unfortunately in this case, we can't fight fire with fire. Spreading the "truth" will not convince the "believers," in fact it may make them even more incensed.
Move to Minnesota! Please! I'll vote for you :-)
Just be glad you get to take any tech classes at all. My (in school) exposure to computers was -- until my junior year -- limited to Apple IIs and IBM PS/2s, on which we did keyboarding exercises. That's it. Keep in mind this is 1993 - 1995.
Beginning with my junior year, we finally got some Windows machines. The aforementioned clueless computer applications teacher guided us through exercises in Word and Excel, which I usually finished within 5 minutes and spent the rest of the time playing solitaire. Eventually the teacher realized that it was pointless for me to do the exercises, so he set me up with a machine with Borland Pascal on it, and told me to teach myself Pascal.
I'm glad to hear there is something in the way of tech classes at today's high schools, albeit taught by the same clueless teachers.
It's just a daycare center the government pays for.
Correction. The government doesn't pay for anything. The taxpayers are footing the bill for your babysitters.
Another thing about the exit exams. I don't know how they do it now, at your school, but when I took the math and reading tests as a junior, it would have been trivial for me to take the test for someone else, then take it for myself on one of the make-up days, given a large-enough incentive. Sadly, it would have taken more effort for me to barely pass (and not raise suspiscion because suddenly the class retard is getting high scores in math) than to get a score in the high 90s as I did.
I agree wholeheartedly. While I didn't have to deal with the inner-city situation you describe, I attended school in a relatively poor semi-rural district. I was bored stiff in class, so I did a lot of learning on my own, namely a lot of reading and assorted computer geekery.
There will always be exceptional students that go beyond what is given to them. I was describing the assembly-line mentality in our schools today, and the fact that a lot of less-motivated students fall through the cracks, getting a diploma without really receiving an education.
I think we can say the problem is twofold:
1) Our society does not value teaching as a profession very highly, both in esteem and financial compensation. This produces a set of teachers that are undermotivated.
2) We have become too focused on the results of learning, rather than the process. Kids (and their parents and teachers) want to "pass," whether or not this includes learning anything of value.
This is probably an oversimplification, but I think it holds true generally.
I'm a graduate student/teaching assistant at a large university. I get paid more than your wife per student-hour for 6 hours of "class" time per week, plus possibly 4 hours of administrative/prep/grading time. On top of my salary I get free tuition. I don't have to deal with middle school kids, only immature freshmen, and I don't pay a dime out of my own pocket. I'm technically less qualified to teach; my BA is in computer science, not education, although I think I do a pretty good job.
Is this fair? Probably not. But, based on my own experiences in public school, a large majority of teachers today are nothing but glorified babysitters, especially in high school. I had a few average teachers, fewer exceptional ones, and the rest were just there, going through the motions, and not getting through to their students.
A few were actually doing their students a disservice by teaching misinformation. My "computer applications" teacher in high school was under the impression that the Internet was invented at the University of Minnesota -- he had the entire Internet confused with the gopher protocol. (Keep in mind, this was in 1995-96.) I pointed his error out after class. He didn't believe me at first, but later he confessed privately to me that he didn't know what he was talking about, but did he announce his error to the class? Nope.
What's wrong with this picture? There is no incentive for teachers to perform well. It is damn near impossible to get a teacher fired, let alone reprimanded, for poor teaching. The ones who do well get a few intangible benefits, one of them being a better rapport with students, but nothing else.
Public schools these days are focused not on teaching children, but giving the appearance of teaching children. Kids take multiple-choice "competency tests" to prove their ability in math and reading comprehension, and teachers teach directly from these tests. "Pass the tests, kids, and you get a diploma! Oh, and you have to show up for class every once in a while." This is education?
I don't doubt your wife is an excellent teacher, but until she can convince her colleagues to pick up the slack, and taxpayers to cough up more money, and the administrators to stop giving themselves raises, she won't be seeing a larger salary.
I hope the public school situation improves before I have school-age children. There are some exceptional public schools in my area, but good luck finding one with class sizes in a reasonable range. I'd go for private school, but there are very few non-religious private schools (if any) in the area, and mandatory religion classes are not an option.
Please find the independent clauses in these sentences.
Well, and too expensive.
And occasionally used poor punctuation.
Deep breath, in, out, in, out.
Hint: There aren't any!
I'll admit my error in thinking the first sentence I brought up was a sentence fragment, but the fact remains, beginning multiple sentences with 'and' in the same paragraph makes for a particularly jarring paragraph.
I know Slashdot isn't -- and doesn't need to be -- perfect in terms of spelling and grammar, but using a sentence fragment to complain about a run-on sentence is a little much.
Here's an idea. Read the article, or better yet, the post you replied to.
The Judge's name is -- get this -- Stephen Limbaugh. Presumably, he's of no relation to Rush.
M-G is certainly within his rights to question a judge's decision when it clearly contradicts another ruling, albeit one by a state court.
sexually explicit videos/books/sex shows/whore houses
Minors (age less than 18) are forbidden by law in most (if not all) states from purchasing sexually explicit materials, be they videos, books, video games, whathaveyou. This also includes entry into strip clubs, sex shows, and brothels (where they are legal).
violent [...] videos/books
The industries police themselves, in most cases, where violent content is concerned. The MPAA movie rating system is voluntary, as is the ESRB video game rating system. It is not illegal to gain entry to an R-rated (age 17+) movie; it's only against the rules, and many underage people get away with it, if a particular theater chooses to enforce it at all. Same story with video games[1]. One exception to this may be television broadcasts; the FCC may have something to say about overly violent content, but I don't know if it is legally forbidden, or just "against the rules."
further more isn't this regarded as a good thing?
Not by all. I personally don't understand the double standard with sex vs. violence. If we declare sexual material to be dangerous to a young person's mind, why isn't violent material held up to the same standard, and forbidden by law?
Not to mention that any age limits are purely arbitrary and unfair. Emotional maturity is not a function of age. I also have a hard time believing that explicit sexual and/or violent content has an overwhelmingly adverse effect on young people. Let parents monitor their own children's behavior and make determinations for themselves. Rating systems are a nice "warning" for parents, but for stores, theaters, and the like to enforce them as anything but a recommendation is, well, silly.
Porn and Doom didn't turn my teenage self into a sex-crazed homicidal maniac. Maybe I didn't get enough!
[1] It may be that it is actually against the law for a store to sell a Mature video game to a minor, not sure.
Actually, they caught him. Mid 20s. Apparently burglarized a bunch of area homes, looking for loose change/cash and guns. You're probably right about the drugs, however.
Think that's trusting? Hell, my parents leave their keys in the ignition, just far enough not to trigger bells and whistles that remind you not to leave them there.
This really happened to us once: no one at home, garage door open, house doors locked, cars unlocked with keys in ignition. Thief breaks into house, ignores easily stealable cars, removes jar of loose change from my room after knocking over a plant or two.
I've read through most of the comments posted, and many refer to Hilary Rosen as "she," "her," etc.
:-)
I wonder if Mr. Rosen would be upset if he knew that a significant portion of Slashdot readers (and, possibly, the general population) thought he was a woman.
Kinda puts a smile on your face, huh?
Let's have a look at this list, shall we?
Do you see India or Pakistan anywhere on the top 20? No? How about any other 'rogue nation?'
Never mind that they'd need a bunch of highly classified test data to run simulations with.
I think we can safely say neither India nor Pakistan will be simulating any nukes, for the time being.