Thats funny. I think I have said the same thing to several people I work with/for (I did not think the agents on the phone had any idea how to use a computer). I am sure there are exceptions, as I have talked to a few who actually understood the issue and fixed it in a few minutes, but the vast majority of the time, they seem to be turning pages in a book (sometimes, you can even here what sounds like pages turning on a good phone connection, though that makes no sense to me) to find the next questions/answer. I find it hard to imagine calling a roomful of people with a pamphlet and a phone in front of them and no computer to help me with computer problems. Almost seems like something from the great Gary Larson.
I use Comcast. I have a business account (had a residential first), and I have always used linux on it. I have a few widows machines, but most of my machines are linux (debian, ubuntu, redhat, mandriva) and they have always worked fine. I have run into a few funny issues where I had to call tech support and have something done on their end, but that was the worst I had to do. The real problem with Comcast (and every other cable company i have used) is the slowdown of their network during times of the day when I need to use it, as well as the poor upstream feed. I have had more then 8% downtime since I switched to business, but I believe that it has something to do with the long run my coax makes from the breakout to the home office.
I have used other cable systems in the past, and most of them were about the same. Nothing to write home about, but barely functional enough. I do miss my T1. It may not have been as fast as broadband companies advertise, but it was much faster then they accomplish normally. But, where I live now, it is way to expensive to go T1.
Use a crockpot. Prep time is very low for most dishes, it cooks all day while you are at work, and food is ready when you walk in the door. You can cook anything from soups to vegan to meat dishes, and it is almost all as simple as tossing in the ingredients, the spices, stirring a few times, putting the lid on and turning the crock on.
There are tens of thousands of recipes you can make in a crock. I also cook on Sunday (or whatever day I am working least) in larger batches for the week. I then portion everything out for the meals the rest of the week. Microwave reheat and serve. It takes more time to get in the car and go out to eat than it does to cook. About the only time I hit fast food is when I am not able to head home. Normally I prepare for that by using sandwich wraps or veggies. Some food bars are good (check labels for ingredients) and a small milk will fill you up.
Learn to eat small portions more often. I have found I am less hungry less often, often times eating on a schedule without ever getting hungry. I have lost 3 full belts from my waist and gut. WooHoo!!
Connecting educational levels with political and business ethics awareness is very much at the heart of questions such as this, in fact a lack of higher educational levels/standards are the primary cause of the monumental mess we are currently in. As we read more and more about the failure of American (US) schools and as foreign exchange students come to the US to find themselves ahead of the equivalent grade level when they get here. As we forgive companies for gross breaches of law (anti-trust, racketeering, abusive use of monopolistic powers...), gross abuses of public trust, gross abuses of corporate morals (see below), are we showing ourselves to be a better educated people? The decisions we make increasingly sacrifice long term viability, profit, well-being and world standing in favor of current financial and political profit.
The members of this site have largely been far more politically aware and educated, whether correct or not, than the average person and we use firefox more than the average public does as well. Members tend not to agree with each other in large groups on most topics and provide for some heated and humorous debates. That is one of the things I like most about slashdot - many different viewpoints, from the nonsensical and flat out wrong to the deeply insightful and hotly contested! But, on this topic (to MicroSoft or not to MicroSoft), there seems to be a large agreement on the harm that companies like MicroSoft and others cause to software development and any company that treats its market the same (phone, cable, internet...). Before you reply, I know there are members on here who are clueless, I never said perfect society.
Those of us who are Americans are held responsible for the war in Iraq, the progress or lack thereof on the war on terror, environmental issues and many others *agenda* items, whether or not we voted the Bush group into office, prefer businesses having more rights or not. These are all very politicized topics, from the global war on IP freedoms waged by MS, RIAA, MPAA and others to the lack of quality security and interoperability in Microsoft applications (I know, I am going to get hit for that). MS is seemingly improving, but not there yet. Choosing to use Internet Explorer or something else is a huge issue, as it strikes directly at the goal of MS to own the Internet, the Internet's standards and further tighten their control over all information with another level of lock in. Have you not noticed the business model they have used for at least two decades now?
The people in slashdot (as a whole) tend to not fit other market demographics. On our own as individuals, we each fall into some market demographic, but as a whole, slashdot is different. Europe seems to be rather different from the US (which many people in power automatically assume is the *prime* market example to follow). Why are these two groups so different from the US? There are many answers and theories. The important point is that they are different. Whether you are hoping for some group to crack the corporate stranglehold on business and freedoms in the world, or you think that there is not enough controls and big brother in place to manage the current security threats, these have serious implications. Understanding them is important. And understanding starts with knowing what is there (the statistics). MS wants to know so that it can better target its marketing, FUD, lawyers and products. IBM wants to know for the same reason. So does AT&T and MCI. So does every web designer out there who thinks about customer experience. So does every virus maker, malware maker and add-on product maker.
InnerWeb
On corporate morals...
As a corporation is an entity under law with nearly the same rights as any living citizen and with dramatically more impact on the laws, finances and political directions of anyplace they assert their power, they ought to be held to a higher moral expectation. Hence, entities lik
Actually, I have seen this number in several very successful businesses as a breakdown per 1000. It has been shown to me as a strong guideline for how to break down responsibilities. It is not universal, and one has to mold every solution to the situation at hand, but:
Top Level (1 Person, 4 reporting) (leaves 995 people) President or owner
Third Level (40 people, approx. 25 reporting to each) (leaves 0 people unaccounted for) Team/project level
Now, I may misunderstand the past couple of posts, but this is three levels of management for one thousand people, and no one has more than 25 reports.
BTW, this comes from several major investors (with their own personal variations on the theme) from companies I have worked for (not allowed to name names... NDA) who use this as a benchmark to see if the framework the companies use for their management model is sane. I thought it was oversimplified at first myself, then went on to be properly schooled as to why this is a good model to start with and why I was so far off base. It turns out that a large part of good management in a large organization involves learning how to delegate responsibility and authority properly. Too many people and you can not properly monitor what is being done while doing your own job, too few, and you are doing too much of the work yourself. Of course, this varies from business to business and individual to individual, but after seeing it put to the test so many times, I have become a believer.
I am sorry, but that is incorrect. Anything that can be used as an exploit, no matter how big, small or unlikely is a potential exploit and must be listed as a security risk. This is the kind of thinking that causes most security issues. Do yourself a favor and don't think like that. Ruling out a security risk that might happen for any reason is looking the other way, and puts you, your client (employer) and the rest at risk. It might also cost you your job. I have seen people let go for much less.
If a system were not accessible over the internet and another one was, then the one that was would definitely have the internet listed as a security issue. Writing an analysis to target only the expected situation is a great way to invite disaster. Ask any company who has had a product used in a way other than intended with problematic results. Cars were never intended to be used as bombs, but they have proven to be quite effective. Exploits that were not intended to made available normally seem to become available. Environments change, needs change, people do things without permission, exploits appear.
Manage all the trades and investments in your retiremens account(s)
Manage your local police force and do all the policing
Raise and educate your child(ren) on your own (no teachers)
...
I would hope that all of these things the vast majority of people would not try. A few would be qualified to do some. For all of these things, we are directed by the *authorities* to have someone else do it, either because it is profitable or because it has become *public* knowledge that this is the way not to do this thing.
Computers are surrounded by much mysticism. MS and others advertise all kinds of wonderful falsehoods. People believe them without knowing what is really happening. They trust them. As long as the public (in general, not the public here) trusts these companies to provide the solution in a box, and as long as they are reasured by the companies that these bad things do not really happen to their people with their products, a large percent of the userbase will continue to ignore those of us out hear yelling "The king is naked" (from a fairy tale). We are a small number of people and we are fighting marketing departments and laziness. So, I think these companies that claim to provide said protection ought to provide that protection out of the box and to force people to use things like secure paswords.
Yeah, I have been a sysadmin for college types and business types, and yeah, the business types were far worse, but in the end, my job was to fulfill my claim of having a secure network, and that meant doing unpopular things like forcing secure passwords.
Wow! That smells illegal. I have not followed in as much detail as I need to, but I had a feeling that what was going on was cartelish. For an organization to be allowed to have fiduciary powers over any or all of a non-granting principal's monies and then be allowed to force that principal to pay a fee (extortion?) to collect those monies does not seem even plausibly legal. (IANAL)
At the very least the RIAA ought to be forced to surrender whatever fees they collect to the parties that have not signed on with the RIAA or be forced to return those unrepresented fees to the ones they collected the fees from. Whatever the outcome, the RIAA ought not have collected those fees in the first place, nor be allowed to keep any of those fees they have collected without permission from the copyright owner.
Or, it was brilliant marketing. Anyone who competed against a person with such an advantage would most likely feel a *need* to have such an advantage themselves. If a company (say an advertiser in the publication) were selling the accounts for real time feeds, then what better way to demonstrate the usefulness of their product?
I have helped create contests that were entirely devoted to exposing a need for a product. They can be very powerful means of driving sales.
For years, local performances have all but dried up due to unfair competition from big labels. I see them coming back now as people are more willing to part with money at these venues. Let the RIAA kill off the rest of the music world. What will be left is truly the best part anyway. What bothers me about this deal, is breadth and the reach of the internet radio fees. What about a station that plays nothing but non-label music with knowledge and permission from the artist(s)? Are these stations then taxed the same way even though they are playing music that is not part of the umbrella?
The telcos already have a way of charging for and providing enhanced bandwidth. It is the same way that a web farm connects to the internet with so much more bandwidth than a normal user does. The backbones already charge what it costs to run them (the backbones).
But, we must remember that the primary (only?) purpose of a corporation is to return an ever growing value to the investors. Anything that enables that is not only justified, but required. Corporations do not suffer consequences, only people.
It is counter productive for most companies to do the socially responsible thing (why tax breaks are needed), as it cuts into profits. Cutting into profits makes a company less competitve and less likely to compete. Regulation provides rules that all companies must follow, making for a *more* level field.
Simply put, it is the job of these companies to drink as much blood from the eceonomy as they can get away with. It is our job to elect people who will control them. Simply allowing companies to follow a profit model without an eye on long term profits and overall national economic health is at best a loosing practice.
Origins of the American Civil War is some good reading, and points to the idea that the Secession was indeed about slavery amongst other things, and thus the war was itself about slavery (amongst other things). So, the GP would seem to be correct, though in a somewhat roundabout way.
Lets see. OLPC is a little less than $200 per laptop, or the Classmate PC at about $400 per laptop. Multiply it by 2 million children... more than a 400 million dollar savings! I wonder which way the more cash strapped countries are going to go?
I would love to get my hands on some of these to see how well they work as a learning tool. The price point puts them in line with many other learning tools on the market for children. The open source platform makes them much more expandable. And, as they become more widely used, the software available for them will become much more diverse and powerful. I wonder if the Intel proposed alternative includes an Operating System in the price.
There is a comment that is out of touch. Teachers do not get paid that much, especially considering the level of education, continuing education, work requirements and out of pocket professional expenses most teachers have. My wife is an assistant manager of a small woman's clothing store. SHe makes more money than most teachers do!
No, the problem with where the money goes in education has very little to do with how much teachers get paid. It has something to do with unfunded mandates and administrative overhead. Have you ever sat down and read through your local school systems annual budget. I have. It is interesting reading. Those little things like you will provide all day kindergarden, but you have to come up with the money. Things like you will provide free meals, and we will provide half the money. Sports are another big money item. In most cases, they cost far more than they bring in (including football, basketball and baseball). Then, for many schools, there are now security issues - normally at the locations that have the least available to spend anyway.
On top of that, there is all of the required record keeping. Do you have any idea how much that costs? And, there are special education children that can cost as much as 100 times that of a normal student - in our system, they used to be left out. It is good to include them, but the money has to come from somewhere. In many US schools now, we have a problem with non-english speaking students and parents. That adds another large cost.
The list goes on and on and on... Many teachers work as much in 8 months as most people do in 16 months. They work when at school, they work before hours, the work after hours, they work on weekends. They put up with stupid parents (someday, a group of teachers ought to write a book about the parents they have to deal with) and their children. They keep trying. Most of them for less than 60% of what a person with a similar educational background would earn. Here, a starting teacher is in the low $20k with a masters degree.
And if you think teaching is easy, you really need to try doing it for a few years. It is one of the hardest jobs you can take up. Most people judge teachers by what they saw while being a student. Kind of like judging an iceberg by that little part that sits above water.
Which is why we no longer drink corn syrup based beverages. We (spouse and I) both lost about half our excess weight just be switching off of foods and beverages with corn syrup. I never saw that coming, but our doc suggested it and it worked like a charm. FWIW, I was already excercising (2 hours per day cycling and weights). But, the weight was not coming off like it should have. Dropping the corn syrup and white flours did the rest.
So you've got to really want to be a patent examiner, be willing to live with a salary far below what you'd get in private industry with the same paper qualifications.
... or you may be stuck with the degrees, no job in your career or choice, lost taste ion career of choise, or maybe the benefits are very attractive. Who knows? I work with people who make less than $20k per year, and a few like it, but most are stuck. Ever think about the person preparing your food in the average restaurant. It may make you loose your appetite. Ever wonder why hard programs have such a high wash out rate (and produce some of the brightest)? Or why when programs get watered down to make it attractive to enough people (lets say for less pay), the first thing to go is quality? There probably are those who really want to be a patent examiner. There are probably many more who are stuck in a job that is the best they can do at the moment, not a job that inspires them.
Of course, wanting to be a patent examiner before you start working there may not mesh with the realities of actually being a patent examiner in real life. From people I have chatted with, they do have quotas, and they do have minimal checking requirements. If I have understood correctly, the burden of the effort is on the submitter and anyone wishing to fight the claim. Maybe the part that is broken is the part that allows patents to be invalidated.
From my online chats/forums with Bruce involved (not with Bruce per se), he has been a very smart individual who has been quite professional. I can completely understand why he might want to have his own username assigned to him and not someone else. In this world, your professional reputation (by name normally) is quite important. I would be very concerned if someone started pretending to be me on slashdot or anywhere else. Heaven only knows how it might be abused. Somehow, that kind of stuff always seems to come to my home (or whomever is having their Identity abused), not the offender's home.
We have already had to deal with identity theft. It causes terrible complications in one's life. Any kind of identity fraud, be it in jest or a criminal act, is just wrong and ought to be defended against.
Slashdot Mirror
Is there an open source hardware raid solution I can buy? And, can I hack it in PHP, Perl or Python (have to get my ppp in)
InnerWeb
For impaired readers, the above is a crude attempt at humor.
Thats funny. I think I have said the same thing to several people I work with/for (I did not think the agents on the phone had any idea how to use a computer). I am sure there are exceptions, as I have talked to a few who actually understood the issue and fixed it in a few minutes, but the vast majority of the time, they seem to be turning pages in a book (sometimes, you can even here what sounds like pages turning on a good phone connection, though that makes no sense to me) to find the next questions/answer. I find it hard to imagine calling a roomful of people with a pamphlet and a phone in front of them and no computer to help me with computer problems. Almost seems like something from the great Gary Larson.
InnerWeb
ROTFLMAO!!! I missed that one, but the laugh was good. Thanks!
InnerWeb
I use Comcast. I have a business account (had a residential first), and I have always used linux on it. I have a few widows machines, but most of my machines are linux (debian, ubuntu, redhat, mandriva) and they have always worked fine. I have run into a few funny issues where I had to call tech support and have something done on their end, but that was the worst I had to do. The real problem with Comcast (and every other cable company i have used) is the slowdown of their network during times of the day when I need to use it, as well as the poor upstream feed. I have had more then 8% downtime since I switched to business, but I believe that it has something to do with the long run my coax makes from the breakout to the home office.
I have used other cable systems in the past, and most of them were about the same. Nothing to write home about, but barely functional enough. I do miss my T1. It may not have been as fast as broadband companies advertise, but it was much faster then they accomplish normally. But, where I live now, it is way to expensive to go T1.
InnerWeb
Use a crockpot. Prep time is very low for most dishes, it cooks all day while you are at work, and food is ready when you walk in the door. You can cook anything from soups to vegan to meat dishes, and it is almost all as simple as tossing in the ingredients, the spices, stirring a few times, putting the lid on and turning the crock on.
There are tens of thousands of recipes you can make in a crock. I also cook on Sunday (or whatever day I am working least) in larger batches for the week. I then portion everything out for the meals the rest of the week. Microwave reheat and serve. It takes more time to get in the car and go out to eat than it does to cook. About the only time I hit fast food is when I am not able to head home. Normally I prepare for that by using sandwich wraps or veggies. Some food bars are good (check labels for ingredients) and a small milk will fill you up.
Learn to eat small portions more often. I have found I am less hungry less often, often times eating on a schedule without ever getting hungry. I have lost 3 full belts from my waist and gut. WooHoo!!
InnerWeb
Connecting educational levels with political and business ethics awareness is very much at the heart of questions such as this, in fact a lack of higher educational levels/standards are the primary cause of the monumental mess we are currently in. As we read more and more about the failure of American (US) schools and as foreign exchange students come to the US to find themselves ahead of the equivalent grade level when they get here. As we forgive companies for gross breaches of law (anti-trust, racketeering, abusive use of monopolistic powers ...), gross abuses of public trust, gross abuses of corporate morals (see below), are we showing ourselves to be a better educated people? The decisions we make increasingly sacrifice long term viability, profit, well-being and world standing in favor of current financial and political profit.
The members of this site have largely been far more politically aware and educated, whether correct or not, than the average person and we use firefox more than the average public does as well. Members tend not to agree with each other in large groups on most topics and provide for some heated and humorous debates. That is one of the things I like most about slashdot - many different viewpoints, from the nonsensical and flat out wrong to the deeply insightful and hotly contested! But, on this topic (to MicroSoft or not to MicroSoft), there seems to be a large agreement on the harm that companies like MicroSoft and others cause to software development and any company that treats its market the same (phone, cable, internet ...). Before you reply, I know there are members on here who are clueless, I never said perfect society.
Those of us who are Americans are held responsible for the war in Iraq, the progress or lack thereof on the war on terror, environmental issues and many others *agenda* items, whether or not we voted the Bush group into office, prefer businesses having more rights or not. These are all very politicized topics, from the global war on IP freedoms waged by MS, RIAA, MPAA and others to the lack of quality security and interoperability in Microsoft applications (I know, I am going to get hit for that). MS is seemingly improving, but not there yet. Choosing to use Internet Explorer or something else is a huge issue, as it strikes directly at the goal of MS to own the Internet, the Internet's standards and further tighten their control over all information with another level of lock in. Have you not noticed the business model they have used for at least two decades now?
The people in slashdot (as a whole) tend to not fit other market demographics. On our own as individuals, we each fall into some market demographic, but as a whole, slashdot is different. Europe seems to be rather different from the US (which many people in power automatically assume is the *prime* market example to follow). Why are these two groups so different from the US? There are many answers and theories. The important point is that they are different. Whether you are hoping for some group to crack the corporate stranglehold on business and freedoms in the world, or you think that there is not enough controls and big brother in place to manage the current security threats, these have serious implications. Understanding them is important. And understanding starts with knowing what is there (the statistics). MS wants to know so that it can better target its marketing, FUD, lawyers and products. IBM wants to know for the same reason. So does AT&T and MCI. So does every web designer out there who thinks about customer experience. So does every virus maker, malware maker and add-on product maker.
InnerWeb
On corporate morals...
As a corporation is an entity under law with nearly the same rights as any living citizen and with dramatically more impact on the laws, finances and political directions of anyplace they assert their power, they ought to be held to a higher moral expectation. Hence, entities lik
Actually, I have seen this number in several very successful businesses as a breakdown per 1000. It has been shown to me as a strong guideline for how to break down responsibilities. It is not universal, and one has to mold every solution to the situation at hand, but:
Now, I may misunderstand the past couple of posts, but this is three levels of management for one thousand people, and no one has more than 25 reports.
BTW, this comes from several major investors (with their own personal variations on the theme) from companies I have worked for (not allowed to name names... NDA) who use this as a benchmark to see if the framework the companies use for their management model is sane. I thought it was oversimplified at first myself, then went on to be properly schooled as to why this is a good model to start with and why I was so far off base. It turns out that a large part of good management in a large organization involves learning how to delegate responsibility and authority properly. Too many people and you can not properly monitor what is being done while doing your own job, too few, and you are doing too much of the work yourself. Of course, this varies from business to business and individual to individual, but after seeing it put to the test so many times, I have become a believer.
-InnerWeb
I am sorry, but that is incorrect. Anything that can be used as an exploit, no matter how big, small or unlikely is a potential exploit and must be listed as a security risk. This is the kind of thinking that causes most security issues. Do yourself a favor and don't think like that. Ruling out a security risk that might happen for any reason is looking the other way, and puts you, your client (employer) and the rest at risk. It might also cost you your job. I have seen people let go for much less.
If a system were not accessible over the internet and another one was, then the one that was would definitely have the internet listed as a security issue. Writing an analysis to target only the expected situation is a great way to invite disaster. Ask any company who has had a product used in a way other than intended with problematic results. Cars were never intended to be used as bombs, but they have proven to be quite effective. Exploits that were not intended to made available normally seem to become available. Environments change, needs change, people do things without permission, exploits appear.
InnerWeb
Right...
And you shall:
- Maintain your automobile, engine and all
- Prescribe your own medications
- Manage all the trades and investments in your retiremens account(s)
- Manage your local police force and do all the policing
- Raise and educate your child(ren) on your own (no teachers)
...
I would hope that all of these things the vast majority of people would not try. A few would be qualified to do some. For all of these things, we are directed by the *authorities* to have someone else do it, either because it is profitable or because it has become *public* knowledge that this is the way not to do this thing.Computers are surrounded by much mysticism. MS and others advertise all kinds of wonderful falsehoods. People believe them without knowing what is really happening. They trust them. As long as the public (in general, not the public here) trusts these companies to provide the solution in a box, and as long as they are reasured by the companies that these bad things do not really happen to their people with their products, a large percent of the userbase will continue to ignore those of us out hear yelling "The king is naked" (from a fairy tale). We are a small number of people and we are fighting marketing departments and laziness. So, I think these companies that claim to provide said protection ought to provide that protection out of the box and to force people to use things like secure paswords.
Yeah, I have been a sysadmin for college types and business types, and yeah, the business types were far worse, but in the end, my job was to fulfill my claim of having a secure network, and that meant doing unpopular things like forcing secure passwords.
InnerWeb
Wow! That smells illegal. I have not followed in as much detail as I need to, but I had a feeling that what was going on was cartelish. For an organization to be allowed to have fiduciary powers over any or all of a non-granting principal's monies and then be allowed to force that principal to pay a fee (extortion?) to collect those monies does not seem even plausibly legal. (IANAL)
At the very least the RIAA ought to be forced to surrender whatever fees they collect to the parties that have not signed on with the RIAA or be forced to return those unrepresented fees to the ones they collected the fees from. Whatever the outcome, the RIAA ought not have collected those fees in the first place, nor be allowed to keep any of those fees they have collected without permission from the copyright owner.
Do I sound redundant yet? ;-)
InnerWeb
Or, it was brilliant marketing. Anyone who competed against a person with such an advantage would most likely feel a *need* to have such an advantage themselves. If a company (say an advertiser in the publication) were selling the accounts for real time feeds, then what better way to demonstrate the usefulness of their product?
I have helped create contests that were entirely devoted to exposing a need for a product. They can be very powerful means of driving sales.
InnerWeb
For years, local performances have all but dried up due to unfair competition from big labels. I see them coming back now as people are more willing to part with money at these venues. Let the RIAA kill off the rest of the music world. What will be left is truly the best part anyway. What bothers me about this deal, is breadth and the reach of the internet radio fees. What about a station that plays nothing but non-label music with knowledge and permission from the artist(s)? Are these stations then taxed the same way even though they are playing music that is not part of the umbrella?
-InnerWebNormally a License, but under a full moon, it mutates and attacks projects that are not corrupted.
The telcos already have a way of charging for and providing enhanced bandwidth. It is the same way that a web farm connects to the internet with so much more bandwidth than a normal user does. The backbones already charge what it costs to run them (the backbones).
But, we must remember that the primary (only?) purpose of a corporation is to return an ever growing value to the investors. Anything that enables that is not only justified, but required. Corporations do not suffer consequences, only people.
It is counter productive for most companies to do the socially responsible thing (why tax breaks are needed), as it cuts into profits. Cutting into profits makes a company less competitve and less likely to compete. Regulation provides rules that all companies must follow, making for a *more* level field.
Simply put, it is the job of these companies to drink as much blood from the eceonomy as they can get away with. It is our job to elect people who will control them. Simply allowing companies to follow a profit model without an eye on long term profits and overall national economic health is at best a loosing practice.
-InnerWebOrigins of the American Civil War is some good reading, and points to the idea that the Secession was indeed about slavery amongst other things, and thus the war was itself about slavery (amongst other things). So, the GP would seem to be correct, though in a somewhat roundabout way.
- InnerWebOops. Sorry. I missed that!
I am all too used to people spouting such FUD about educators.
InnerWeb
Lets see. OLPC is a little less than $200 per laptop, or the Classmate PC at about $400 per laptop. Multiply it by 2 million children... more than a 400 million dollar savings! I wonder which way the more cash strapped countries are going to go?
I would love to get my hands on some of these to see how well they work as a learning tool. The price point puts them in line with many other learning tools on the market for children. The open source platform makes them much more expandable. And, as they become more widely used, the software available for them will become much more diverse and powerful. I wonder if the Intel proposed alternative includes an Operating System in the price.
InnerWebThere is a comment that is out of touch. Teachers do not get paid that much, especially considering the level of education, continuing education, work requirements and out of pocket professional expenses most teachers have. My wife is an assistant manager of a small woman's clothing store. SHe makes more money than most teachers do!
No, the problem with where the money goes in education has very little to do with how much teachers get paid. It has something to do with unfunded mandates and administrative overhead. Have you ever sat down and read through your local school systems annual budget. I have. It is interesting reading. Those little things like you will provide all day kindergarden, but you have to come up with the money. Things like you will provide free meals, and we will provide half the money. Sports are another big money item. In most cases, they cost far more than they bring in (including football, basketball and baseball). Then, for many schools, there are now security issues - normally at the locations that have the least available to spend anyway.
On top of that, there is all of the required record keeping. Do you have any idea how much that costs? And, there are special education children that can cost as much as 100 times that of a normal student - in our system, they used to be left out. It is good to include them, but the money has to come from somewhere. In many US schools now, we have a problem with non-english speaking students and parents. That adds another large cost.
The list goes on and on and on... Many teachers work as much in 8 months as most people do in 16 months. They work when at school, they work before hours, the work after hours, they work on weekends. They put up with stupid parents (someday, a group of teachers ought to write a book about the parents they have to deal with) and their children. They keep trying. Most of them for less than 60% of what a person with a similar educational background would earn. Here, a starting teacher is in the low $20k with a masters degree.
And if you think teaching is easy, you really need to try doing it for a few years. It is one of the hardest jobs you can take up. Most people judge teachers by what they saw while being a student. Kind of like judging an iceberg by that little part that sits above water.
InnerWeb
Which is why we no longer drink corn syrup based beverages. We (spouse and I) both lost about half our excess weight just be switching off of foods and beverages with corn syrup. I never saw that coming, but our doc suggested it and it worked like a charm. FWIW, I was already excercising (2 hours per day cycling and weights). But, the weight was not coming off like it should have. Dropping the corn syrup and white flours did the rest.
InnerWeb
Hey Pinky! Where's the Brain?
-InnerWebSo you've got to really want to be a patent examiner, be willing to live with a salary far below what you'd get in private industry with the same paper qualifications.
... or you may be stuck with the degrees, no job in your career or choice, lost taste ion career of choise, or maybe the benefits are very attractive. Who knows? I work with people who make less than $20k per year, and a few like it, but most are stuck. Ever think about the person preparing your food in the average restaurant. It may make you loose your appetite. Ever wonder why hard programs have such a high wash out rate (and produce some of the brightest)? Or why when programs get watered down to make it attractive to enough people (lets say for less pay), the first thing to go is quality? There probably are those who really want to be a patent examiner. There are probably many more who are stuck in a job that is the best they can do at the moment, not a job that inspires them.
Of course, wanting to be a patent examiner before you start working there may not mesh with the realities of actually being a patent examiner in real life. From people I have chatted with, they do have quotas, and they do have minimal checking requirements. If I have understood correctly, the burden of the effort is on the submitter and anyone wishing to fight the claim. Maybe the part that is broken is the part that allows patents to be invalidated.
Just some rambling from me...
InnerWebMaybe not flambait (sic), but definately on some acid trip. Reminds me of some of the stuff written in the sixties (like Pink Floyd's early stuff) ;-)
InnerWebJeez, I always thought there were Gigs and Gigs (billions and billions)....
-InnerWebFrom my online chats/forums with Bruce involved (not with Bruce per se), he has been a very smart individual who has been quite professional. I can completely understand why he might want to have his own username assigned to him and not someone else. In this world, your professional reputation (by name normally) is quite important. I would be very concerned if someone started pretending to be me on slashdot or anywhere else. Heaven only knows how it might be abused. Somehow, that kind of stuff always seems to come to my home (or whomever is having their Identity abused), not the offender's home.
We have already had to deal with identity theft. It causes terrible complications in one's life. Any kind of identity fraud, be it in jest or a criminal act, is just wrong and ought to be defended against.
-InnerWebIn most cases, from the examples I've seen, the rapid prototyping tools can't currently create a durable item
From my purchasing experiences in the past decade, it seems most items are not durable anyway. ;-)
-InnerWeb