I think some slashdotters might need some fundamental reading education.
The summary says "Courses Include". It isn't just Microsoft. Article actually says "including SAP, Microsoft and Cisco".
So long as there isn't exclusivity, the fact these are being offered free to students is a good thing. Yes there is a bit of lock in on the corporate side, that is why they do it for free. Why do you think there are "educational" copies of software for just about everything? Out of the goodness of their bleeding hearts? Heck I know we used Sun systems because they donated the lab to our University (not that I ever did again).
High School gives you the basics, University gives you fundamentals. College/Technical school gives you certifications. To get a job, many go get certifications post university, I did. I am looking at getting another (Oracle, ya ya I know). However the fact that you can do it in high school, it counts as a credit, AND it is free? That has got to be a good thing. So long as it is not exclusionary (though I would imagine to get credit you would have to be a little discerning). Yes you have to keep up on certifications, or work in the field, but they are probably more or as useful as some of the non-core garbage offered in school these days.
Shepherd Book: If you take advantage of her, you're going to burn in a special level of hell. A level reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theater.
Poison maybe? Then again, this is probably because I really lack an understanding of how poisons generally work. After all that's a woman's weapon amiright? And we all know how direct they can be...;)
Red: The man's been in here fifty years, Heywood. Fifty years! This is all he knows. In here, he's an important man. He's an educated man. Outside, he's nothin'! Just a used up con with arthritis in both hands.
He also had specific instructions to be buried within 24h of his death, so the aforementioned gym bag was also thrown into the sea. He died of natural causes to be sure.
This is an issue with a wrench. You can have it encrypted 5 different ways, but when the NSA comes a knocking, DEMANDING The data, and your alternative is to get shut down, go to jail, etc... guess what, they key's become suddenly available anyway.
Its another type of brute force encryption hacking that always succeeds. The RIAA and MPAA figured this out (mostly) long ago when they realized that from a technical standpoint it is a no win situation. At that point just let the government and/or courts solve the issue for you.
The NSA isn't going to crack any codes, they are going to ask for the keys, and if you don't give it to them they will destroy you.
We just ordered a whole bunch of "ice hardened" corvettes (I thought they were supposed to be frigates, but I don't really know the difference anyway).
I can see how this will influence Canadian naval Strategy...
1st Officer: "Sir radar detects an enemy vessel off our port bow!" Captain: "Yar! Tis be time for battle me maties! Ahead full to ramming speed, we'll stave in this gobber good!"
Enemy radarman: "Um, there appears to be a ship coming towards us slowly..." Enemy Captain: "Distance?!" Enemy radarman: "17 Kilometers, estimated impact in about an hour or so?" Enemy Captain: "Um... fire a missile?"
Early adopters of a brand new electronic device are finding that some may have some issues that still need to be worked out?
Never before in the history of electronic devices has any of them ever had any problems on initial world wide launch and all of them always worked perfectly when introducing brand new technology.
There are going to be a lot of people wondering if that baby is really theirs, or if their significant (or insignificant) other has been cheating on them...
You do if it is politically motivated, and everything is at those cost levels.
Canadian example: Long Gun Registry was supposed to cost X (I don't remember, but in the millions), and ended up costing like 3$ Billion (with a B). So way over budget.
The Conservatives wanted to get rid of it, and used the excuse that it was a waste of money and served no purpose. One might argue about its merits or not, many thought it was useful, however purportedly it cost about 3$ million annually to maintain.
Which is silly. The analogy I like to make is it is like buying a 30,000$ car, and upon seeing that you have to pay 30$ a year to keep it running, you would rather throw it into the trash because you are not sure how much you will actually drive it! (There you go Slashdot, car analogy!)
Ironically the Conservatives are the ones that like to pass themselves off as financially savvy and the PM has an economist background. In the end, it doesn't really matter, there is politically ideology, whatever justification you can make that you can swindle people into is good enough.
If they can't understand you, the problem is on their end. Grunting and guarded looks is what I usually use.
Serious advice, some has been mentioned already:
Knowing audience, technical VS non-technical. Context. What are they using your communication for? Brevity and succinctness.
Have struggled with the last myself at times. I am a details person, and I find the devil's usually in the details. I usually want them to understand it fully before making a reasoned decision etc...
However half the time they don't really care, they have a decision they want to justify, and details only really get in the way. As said, audience, and context. Also in the above example, plausible deniability (if you don't tell me the details, I can make the decision I want to make, and then not have to lie about not knowing about something, sometimes you get a catch 22. Watch your ass, you see plenty of tech stories in the news about some improper IT person. I wonder how many times that is just staff getting thrown under the bus by management.
So you have an article title that says one thing, that 3 coders build a better portal, a body of a summary that says the exact opposite thing, in that it A) isn't the same thing at all, B) is actually based entirely on the real portal, its data, and the work done by others, and C) is only partially working, and then a conclusion at the end that inexplicably verifies the original article title.
This is writing at it's worst, misleading, and ridiculous. I know people make fun of the story submission rules and editing here at slashdot, but really. Is reputation worth sensational short term page views?
So the real reason they were so after Julian Assange wasn't Corporate USA political interference, but rather Sweden simply trying to fill prison beds! It is all so clear now!
Slashdot Mirror
I think some slashdotters might need some fundamental reading education.
The summary says "Courses Include". It isn't just Microsoft.
Article actually says "including SAP, Microsoft and Cisco".
So long as there isn't exclusivity, the fact these are being offered free to students is a good thing. Yes there is a bit of lock in on the corporate side, that is why they do it for free. Why do you think there are "educational" copies of software for just about everything? Out of the goodness of their bleeding hearts? Heck I know we used Sun systems because they donated the lab to our University (not that I ever did again).
High School gives you the basics, University gives you fundamentals. College/Technical school gives you certifications. To get a job, many go get certifications post university, I did. I am looking at getting another (Oracle, ya ya I know). However the fact that you can do it in high school, it counts as a credit, AND it is free? That has got to be a good thing. So long as it is not exclusionary (though I would imagine to get credit you would have to be a little discerning). Yes you have to keep up on certifications, or work in the field, but they are probably more or as useful as some of the non-core garbage offered in school these days.
Shepherd Book: If you take advantage of her, you're going to burn in a special level of hell. A level reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theater.
Directed Energy Weapons?
Name a weapon that is not directed energy?
Most fall into the Kinetic verity I would think.
Poison maybe? Then again, this is probably because I really lack an understanding of how poisons generally work. After all that's a woman's weapon amiright? And we all know how direct they can be... ;)
Red: The man's been in here fifty years, Heywood. Fifty years! This is all he knows. In here, he's an important man. He's an educated man. Outside, he's nothin'! Just a used up con with arthritis in both hands.
He also had specific instructions to be buried within 24h of his death, so the aforementioned gym bag was also thrown into the sea. He died of natural causes to be sure.
Yes because he was killed resisting, not executed. They immediately dumped his body in the ocean because of some good reason I can't remember now...
http://xkcd.com/538/
This is NOT an issue with encryption.
This is an issue with a wrench. You can have it encrypted 5 different ways, but when the NSA comes a knocking, DEMANDING The data, and your alternative is to get shut down, go to jail, etc... guess what, they key's become suddenly available anyway.
Its another type of brute force encryption hacking that always succeeds. The RIAA and MPAA figured this out (mostly) long ago when they realized that from a technical standpoint it is a no win situation. At that point just let the government and/or courts solve the issue for you.
The NSA isn't going to crack any codes, they are going to ask for the keys, and if you don't give it to them they will destroy you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Patrol_Ship_Project
We just ordered a whole bunch of "ice hardened" corvettes (I thought they were supposed to be frigates, but I don't really know the difference anyway).
I can see how this will influence Canadian naval Strategy...
1st Officer: "Sir radar detects an enemy vessel off our port bow!"
Captain: "Yar! Tis be time for battle me maties! Ahead full to ramming speed, we'll stave in this gobber good!"
Enemy radarman: "Um, there appears to be a ship coming towards us slowly..."
Enemy Captain: "Distance?!"
Enemy radarman: "17 Kilometers, estimated impact in about an hour or so?"
Enemy Captain: "Um... fire a missile?"
Early adopters of a brand new electronic device are finding that some may have some issues that still need to be worked out?
Never before in the history of electronic devices has any of them ever had any problems on initial world wide launch and all of them always worked perfectly when introducing brand new technology.
That is just crazy talk. Crazy.
So you are saying my vitamins may not be less effective if they are past their expiry date?
Exactly what I was thinking... Some snickering NSA nerds handing over the "kill switch" to the judge... "Here you go... Careful!"
Only Captain Picard has that ability!
You mean everything on Jerry Springer is a lie?
There are going to be a lot of people wondering if that baby is really theirs, or if their significant (or insignificant) other has been cheating on them...
"Do you really throw away $10B to save 2B?"
You do if it is politically motivated, and everything is at those cost levels.
Canadian example:
Long Gun Registry was supposed to cost X (I don't remember, but in the millions), and ended up costing like 3$ Billion (with a B). So way over budget.
The Conservatives wanted to get rid of it, and used the excuse that it was a waste of money and served no purpose.
One might argue about its merits or not, many thought it was useful, however purportedly it cost about 3$ million annually to maintain.
Which is silly. The analogy I like to make is it is like buying a 30,000$ car, and upon seeing that you have to pay 30$ a year to keep it running, you would rather throw it into the trash because you are not sure how much you will actually drive it!
(There you go Slashdot, car analogy!)
Ironically the Conservatives are the ones that like to pass themselves off as financially savvy and the PM has an economist background. In the end, it doesn't really matter, there is politically ideology, whatever justification you can make that you can swindle people into is good enough.
"There are however some possible....failure modes."
Like a black hole consuming the earth? ;)
"This means market-driven innovation can actually widen the gap between rich and poor."
Somehow I see republicans everywhere hissing "lies!" *gasp*
If they can't understand you, the problem is on their end. Grunting and guarded looks is what I usually use.
Serious advice, some has been mentioned already:
Knowing audience, technical VS non-technical.
Context. What are they using your communication for?
Brevity and succinctness.
Have struggled with the last myself at times. I am a details person, and I find the devil's usually in the details. I usually want them to understand it fully before making a reasoned decision etc...
However half the time they don't really care, they have a decision they want to justify, and details only really get in the way.
As said, audience, and context. Also in the above example, plausible deniability (if you don't tell me the details, I can make the decision I want to make, and then not have to lie about not knowing about something, sometimes you get a catch 22. Watch your ass, you see plenty of tech stories in the news about some improper IT person. I wonder how many times that is just staff getting thrown under the bus by management.
So you have an article title that says one thing, that 3 coders build a better portal, a body of a summary that says the exact opposite thing, in that it A) isn't the same thing at all, B) is actually based entirely on the real portal, its data, and the work done by others, and C) is only partially working, and then a conclusion at the end that inexplicably verifies the original article title.
This is writing at it's worst, misleading, and ridiculous. I know people make fun of the story submission rules and editing here at slashdot, but really. Is reputation worth sensational short term page views?
So the real reason they were so after Julian Assange wasn't Corporate USA political interference, but rather Sweden simply trying to fill prison beds! It is all so clear now!
With the music composed by the easy listening styles of Metallica of course...
Some of us still remember the whole Napster thing.
It's already Singles Day (or night really). Everyone else feels obligated to be someplace else.
It also has the air of desperation that exists for singles at a wedding.
If I could program this thing, that is what I would do...
or possibly if it refuses to start after pulling over, "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that."
Am I the only one that want's Top Gear to get a hold of it?
(and possibly ruin it!)
Wow, if true that is pretty brutal. All news sources seemed to be using that figure. Propaganda much?