they become lost, because they don't have the basic mathematical foundations to understand the more complex ones
Oh please. Do you really mean to argue that learning to carry the one and add decimals to divide out the remainder are really prerequisites for understanding higher maths? I think a few days of lining up 5 rows of 3 blocks to understand 3 x 5 = 15 would help way more than learning the intricacies of our unfortunate notation for arithmetic.
I don't think kids using calculators are really having their (potential) math skills ruined. I think the spectre to fear is that teachers will rely on calculators and computers to summarize every process and thereby undermine analytic skills. And while I agree that this would be something to fear, I don't think it's happening right now. As for the claim that calculator use undermines math skills, I'd like to see some research referenced; I just don't buy it as speculation.
Will these Linux machines carry with them the aura of the open source movement, or will it be just another OS to them?
Not necessarily either, I'm thinking. I do think people "raised" on linux w/ KDE will be partial to it over, say, MS-Windows, simply because they're accustomed to it. But I don't think this implies that they'll get into the whole open source movement.
For one thing, it might never be explained to them. If it's only stated that "here's your computer, here's how you work it," there's really no chance of getting into the movement, is there? When I see it really becoming an issue is when someone gets really good at writing shell scripts to customize his/her environment, gets interested in programming, and wants to go to the US to study. Then someone will have to break the news that to be taken seriously in the US computer industry, you have to know Windows2000, and I'm sorry you can't use that because MS says it costs even more than your computer!
To care about Open Source as a phenomenon, I think people must be aware of the alternatives.
Hm. After reading that article (and my post will still probably be #20 -- tells you how deep it was), it's not really about OSX at all. It quotes one very small phrase that Raskin said about OSX, and goes on to explain that he wasn't talking specifically about OSX very much at all.
That said, this article seems like another peice of flamebait in the "UNIX is still cool/no it's not" war.
a) Have your friend post some of his/her experiences,
b) If it's actually comparable to disposable cameras, I'm excited. Sure, they're autofocus, no zoom and no f-stop setting, but that's no worse than your average instamatic. If the disposable phone is basically like a cell phone only with no voicemail and no personal directory, then hell! sign me up for 10!
There will be no off-Broadway tryout for the technology. The process will make its debut in front of 130 million viewers.
See, this right here makes me more than a little skeptical about how well this thing was engineered. If it was 2 years in the making anyway, it seems like the least they could do would be to hook it up a few days in advance and take some rotating retakes of, oh, the groundskeeper replacing sod or something.
Or at least take accurate measurements of the dimensions of the stadium and set up a demo in an airplane hangar someplace. While it would make for some of the coolest replays ever, I think their efforts towards secrecy and "adventure" are going to make for a barely-functional system that won't live up to its hype.
also, there was a line in there about how this would "prove conclusively" if certain passes were received and whatnot, but don't you really only need 1 really good angle for that?
Hm. This thing has firewire and USB support, you say? And it's a linux terminal, you say? That's funny; my linux terminal doesn't support USB or firewire. Well, okay, it could have some rudimentary support for USB if I installed a newer kernel, but nothing I'd call production quality.
So are these custom drivers or what? And if so, how about giving a bit back to the community that allowed Nokia to sell the device for $400 instead of $495 (cost of hardware vs. hardware + windows license)?
would not support what we have SWORN to uphold. The Constitution. ALL of IT.
I'm not saying it shouldn't be upheld; I was making the case that it's not BEING upheld. And, personally, I don't think that simply carrying a sidearm does anything to help at this point in history.
The authors of the constitution were immediately stinging from the british prohibition on colonists owning weapons, a measure they took to keep the colonies in check. The founders of America realized that citizens would need to be entitled to bear arms to prevent this sort of tyrrany from occurring again. In those days, though, to arm oneself meant to carry a musket.
Now, adequately arming yourself against government oppression would necessitate significantly more firepower. This, the government has decided, is NOT something we're entitled to. Everything from automatic assault rifles on up has been effectively banned. And you think you even COULD resist an oppressive government with the weapons you're allowed to have? Not a chance.
What I'm saying is, the second amendment is already gutted for all practical purposes.
The other side of the coin is to take responsibility for your own protection by arming yourself, against intruders or a dangerous government.
Well, at least you have a grasp on what the second amendment is all about. That said, the "right" to arm oneself against government intrusion is woefully outdated to the point of naivite. If you and your friends took up arms against any government action, all the way down to resisting arrest, you'd be dead before you could even recite the second amendment.
The constitution effectively means nothing anymore for citizens wanting to "protect" themselves in the intended fashion. You're not allowed to have munitions that would pose a serious threat to the government and they're legally entitled to shoot you if you get dangerous with the weapons you DO have. At this point in history arming yourself just makes you more of a threat to yourself and your family than you would be unarmed. Get over it.
Okay! I just got a copy of my credit report about an hour after I posted that. Turns out the real story is just about as silly; The delinquent account was actually with a medical lab for some blood diagnostics my doctor ordered over 2 years ago. Because I lived at school and my mail came to my parents' house, the bill got lost in the shuffle. And my parents figured it was covered by their medical insurance. Nope! I was supposed to pay. So, I never got a bill but did get routed through a collection agency and it ruined a few credit card apps for me.
I don't think you even have to screw up to get lousy credit these days. In my previous apartment, I lived with my brother during his summer break and right before I moved away for a job. Because I had to leave before he did, I left the utilities on, but asked that the bills be forwarded to my new address.
Everything seems to have worked out fine, except that it inexplicably took over a month to get 3 of the bills forwarded, at which point some nasty letters had been sent. Consumers Energy sent my name to a collections agency (I'm still less than 2 months overdue, here), and the next time I applied for a credit card I got rejected for "excessive debt" and "failure to pay" some bills.
Excessive? The bill was $109. And I was making $48,000 per year at the time. AND the whole reason I didn't pay on time was because I was busy moving and the mail forwarded so slowly.
sure, my copy of win2k is not exactly legal, but i have piles of software that IS legal...
See, this is what I find interesting. Probably some of that other legal software is MS, too, right? Or do you prefer lower-priced alternatives? I, for one, am still using an academic copy of WordPerfect 8 I got when I was an undergrad.
And it made me think. I wouldn't mind upgrading to the newer MSOffice stuff, especially since it would make it easier for me to interact w/ people at work that way. But there's just no WAY i'm going to pay $299 or whatever it is for that relatively minor convenience. $60, maybe. $40, more likely. $30, almost certainly.
See, MS software is aimed at businesses. But we're not all businesses. So why don't they have a pricing scheme for the Rest Of Us? It's like some seats on airplanes are first class, and some are coach. And moreover, if 3 or 4 of the coach seats don't sell for full price, American (or whoever) essentially auctions them off to standby customers because, hey, a seat filled for half price is better than an empty seat.
And I guess I just don't understand why MS won't do the same thing. They're trying to make everyone fly first class, but we just can't (or won't) afford it. It seems like it would be to their advantage to develop a much more stratified pricing structure, perhaps based on differences in customer support and application features, so they could fill those coach seats.
Okay, on the off chance that you're serious, I'll bite.
Whatever you do, please do not respond to spam via email. I noticed your page gave other options like customer service numbers and faxes, and that's great. But if you reply to spam, it just confirms that there's a real, live person reading this email and gaurantees that you'll be kept on the list.
Furthermore, many times spammers spoof addresses, and some innocent sap could get your flaming responses. A lot of good that would do...
First of all, I laughed out loud when the article pointed out the futility of a lot of OO "training" programs, like modeling heirarchies of shapes ("SQUARE is a subclass of RECTANGLE..."). I mean, how often have you ever needed to CODE that?! So, good point there.
But, that does kind of relate to the domain where OO is maybe best: GUI programming. This is a point acknowledged in the article, so I won't try to use it as a counterargument. Overall, that page does a pretty good job of claiming that OOP is overhyped, and not perfect for every situation. The author's not saying it sux0rs.
However, I think there is one important domain that was missed: database interaction. The author makes the point that a lot of seemingly OOP-related problems, like employee types, etc, are maintained by accountants in database relations, and not by coders in their programs. BUT, there are some great frameworks for interacting with database rows & relations as Objects! Here I'm mostly thinking of Apple's EnterpriseObjects, but please enlighten me about your favorite one.
In my experience, using code-level Objects to access database rows instead of raw SQL can be a helluva timesaver in many situations. And, to free engineers from controlling the data schema,
EO even comes with a data modelor that can automatically generate Obj-C or Java classes to manipulate your database data.
IMHO, than rocks. I've written server scripts with raw SQL statements, and trust me, this is much easier. Even if we don't reuse it for 30 years. The main problem I see is that EnterpriseObjects in particular has like 6 billion layers of abstraction, so the performance is never quite what you'd like. It seems like there'd be some kind of compromise, though.
The first article very summarily states that the quantum computing process is "completely reversible" and so consumes "no net energy." Now that I think about it, I barely remember covering quantum computing in undergrad, and I wasn't a physics major, so I don't know all the terms. But it was my impression that the particles serving as "bits" in the quantum machine had to be suspended somehow, and that the mechanism for doing this is extrememly power-intensive. And that this high rate of power consumption was in fact one of the things keeping quantum computers from using more than 4-6 bits at a time.
So, basically what I mean is, I don't know what I'm talking about here, but the claim that "they don't consume energy" smells funny based on the little I did learn about quantum computing at one point. Like, even if it's theoretically true, it's deceptive to put it just that way. So, can someone more versed in physics enlighten me and the/. crowd at large?
Also, I really really find it hard to believe that a company in this day and age would be racist. They are driven by money...
What bugs me is that so many people can't see that this is racist. Because there was an explicitly racist period in our history and the damages done were never properly redressed, there are disproportionately many disadvantaged African Americans in this country. To ignore this status quo ("Hey! We're not racist, we're just in it for the money!") is to perpetuate it, and that is an act of racism.
How the HELL is that flamebait? All it says is "wow, KDE is really coming along." I can only assume some cracked-out moderator implied that this was a rip on gnome, even though it's no such thing.
Moderation on slashdot is getting horrid. I REALLY wish we could meta-mod specific posts instead of having to do 10 random ones.
I must be missing something, because all I see in the screenshots are pictures of a green-themed Internet
Explorer with improved file icons being used to navigate the directory structure.
For one thing, it is (of course) theme-able, so if you don't like the green, change it. Already an improvement over MS-explorer. And then, the file icons aren't just improved, there's also varying levels of detail about each file based on how far you "zoom" in or out. So, you can go from just the plane-jane name up to "this file has X items and was last modified at 4:30." I'm not sure, but I'm hoping this level of detail is configurable and maybe you can even get full details in a floating tooltip or something.
Granted, this isn't exactly revolutionizing the way you interact with your computer, but it is some slick stuff and I dare say better than what we've currently got. Speaking of which:
Most people don't use this mode, though, because the typical browser is a bad interface choice for system & file
operations.
Okay, now I must be missing something: if most people don't use this mode, what DO they use? Almost everyone I know (all the windows users anyway) uses an interface exactly like this to navigate their filesystems. Why? If nothing else, then because it's the default setup on win98 and ME. Unless you're talking about something totally different, then this Eazel interface should be super intuitive to windows users, as well as having some added benefits like the ones I mentioned above.
Slashdot Mirror
I was gonna say the Halloween one where evil bart made a bird-rat...
So make the rules infinitely flexible -- it'll be video Calvinball!
Oh please. Do you really mean to argue that learning to carry the one and add decimals to divide out the remainder are really prerequisites for understanding higher maths? I think a few days of lining up 5 rows of 3 blocks to understand 3 x 5 = 15 would help way more than learning the intricacies of our unfortunate notation for arithmetic.
I don't think kids using calculators are really having their (potential) math skills ruined. I think the spectre to fear is that teachers will rely on calculators and computers to summarize every process and thereby undermine analytic skills. And while I agree that this would be something to fear, I don't think it's happening right now. As for the claim that calculator use undermines math skills, I'd like to see some research referenced; I just don't buy it as speculation.
Crap! I don't want VMWare to set up barriers around my virtual machines; I'd like very much for them to interoperate smoothly!
Not necessarily either, I'm thinking. I do think people "raised" on linux w/ KDE will be partial to it over, say, MS-Windows, simply because they're accustomed to it. But I don't think this implies that they'll get into the whole open source movement.
For one thing, it might never be explained to them. If it's only stated that "here's your computer, here's how you work it," there's really no chance of getting into the movement, is there? When I see it really becoming an issue is when someone gets really good at writing shell scripts to customize his/her environment, gets interested in programming, and wants to go to the US to study. Then someone will have to break the news that to be taken seriously in the US computer industry, you have to know Windows2000, and I'm sorry you can't use that because MS says it costs even more than your computer!
To care about Open Source as a phenomenon, I think people must be aware of the alternatives.
That said, this article seems like another peice of flamebait in the "UNIX is still cool/no it's not" war.
b) If it's actually comparable to disposable cameras, I'm excited. Sure, they're autofocus, no zoom and no f-stop setting, but that's no worse than your average instamatic. If the disposable phone is basically like a cell phone only with no voicemail and no personal directory, then hell! sign me up for 10!
Oh, wait... I don't have ANSI terminal emulation enabled in Netscape... nevermind :)
Ahh, the good old BBS days. It's great that they now have "live webcam" functionality for systems like that, 10 years after they're useful :)
See, this right here makes me more than a little skeptical about how well this thing was engineered. If it was 2 years in the making anyway, it seems like the least they could do would be to hook it up a few days in advance and take some rotating retakes of, oh, the groundskeeper replacing sod or something.
Or at least take accurate measurements of the dimensions of the stadium and set up a demo in an airplane hangar someplace. While it would make for some of the coolest replays ever, I think their efforts towards secrecy and "adventure" are going to make for a barely-functional system that won't live up to its hype.
also, there was a line in there about how this would "prove conclusively" if certain passes were received and whatnot, but don't you really only need 1 really good angle for that?
So are these custom drivers or what? And if so, how about giving a bit back to the community that allowed Nokia to sell the device for $400 instead of $495 (cost of hardware vs. hardware + windows license)?
I'm not saying it shouldn't be upheld; I was making the case that it's not BEING upheld. And, personally, I don't think that simply carrying a sidearm does anything to help at this point in history.
The authors of the constitution were immediately stinging from the british prohibition on colonists owning weapons, a measure they took to keep the colonies in check. The founders of America realized that citizens would need to be entitled to bear arms to prevent this sort of tyrrany from occurring again. In those days, though, to arm oneself meant to carry a musket.
Now, adequately arming yourself against government oppression would necessitate significantly more firepower. This, the government has decided, is NOT something we're entitled to. Everything from automatic assault rifles on up has been effectively banned. And you think you even COULD resist an oppressive government with the weapons you're allowed to have? Not a chance.
What I'm saying is, the second amendment is already gutted for all practical purposes.
Well, at least you have a grasp on what the second amendment is all about. That said, the "right" to arm oneself against government intrusion is woefully outdated to the point of naivite. If you and your friends took up arms against any government action, all the way down to resisting arrest, you'd be dead before you could even recite the second amendment.
The constitution effectively means nothing anymore for citizens wanting to "protect" themselves in the intended fashion. You're not allowed to have munitions that would pose a serious threat to the government and they're legally entitled to shoot you if you get dangerous with the weapons you DO have. At this point in history arming yourself just makes you more of a threat to yourself and your family than you would be unarmed. Get over it.
No way, man -- that's far to harsh against Hong Kong!
Okay! I just got a copy of my credit report about an hour after I posted that. Turns out the real story is just about as silly; The delinquent account was actually with a medical lab for some blood diagnostics my doctor ordered over 2 years ago. Because I lived at school and my mail came to my parents' house, the bill got lost in the shuffle. And my parents figured it was covered by their medical insurance. Nope! I was supposed to pay. So, I never got a bill but did get routed through a collection agency and it ruined a few credit card apps for me.
Everything seems to have worked out fine, except that it inexplicably took over a month to get 3 of the bills forwarded, at which point some nasty letters had been sent. Consumers Energy sent my name to a collections agency (I'm still less than 2 months overdue, here), and the next time I applied for a credit card I got rejected for "excessive debt" and "failure to pay" some bills.
Excessive? The bill was $109. And I was making $48,000 per year at the time. AND the whole reason I didn't pay on time was because I was busy moving and the mail forwarded so slowly.
See, this is what I find interesting. Probably some of that other legal software is MS, too, right? Or do you prefer lower-priced alternatives? I, for one, am still using an academic copy of WordPerfect 8 I got when I was an undergrad.
And it made me think. I wouldn't mind upgrading to the newer MSOffice stuff, especially since it would make it easier for me to interact w/ people at work that way. But there's just no WAY i'm going to pay $299 or whatever it is for that relatively minor convenience. $60, maybe. $40, more likely. $30, almost certainly.
See, MS software is aimed at businesses. But we're not all businesses. So why don't they have a pricing scheme for the Rest Of Us? It's like some seats on airplanes are first class, and some are coach. And moreover, if 3 or 4 of the coach seats don't sell for full price, American (or whoever) essentially auctions them off to standby customers because, hey, a seat filled for half price is better than an empty seat.
And I guess I just don't understand why MS won't do the same thing. They're trying to make everyone fly first class, but we just can't (or won't) afford it. It seems like it would be to their advantage to develop a much more stratified pricing structure, perhaps based on differences in customer support and application features, so they could fill those coach seats.
Whatever you do, please do not respond to spam via email. I noticed your page gave other options like customer service numbers and faxes, and that's great. But if you reply to spam, it just confirms that there's a real, live person reading this email and gaurantees that you'll be kept on the list.
Furthermore, many times spammers spoof addresses, and some innocent sap could get your flaming responses. A lot of good that would do...
Hey, thanks, good eye.
Wow. I think /. has been seriously trolled this time.
But, that does kind of relate to the domain where OO is maybe best: GUI programming. This is a point acknowledged in the article, so I won't try to use it as a counterargument. Overall, that page does a pretty good job of claiming that OOP is overhyped, and not perfect for every situation. The author's not saying it sux0rs.
However, I think there is one important domain that was missed: database interaction. The author makes the point that a lot of seemingly OOP-related problems, like employee types, etc, are maintained by accountants in database relations, and not by coders in their programs. BUT, there are some great frameworks for interacting with database rows & relations as Objects! Here I'm mostly thinking of Apple's EnterpriseObjects, but please enlighten me about your favorite one.
In my experience, using code-level Objects to access database rows instead of raw SQL can be a helluva timesaver in many situations. And, to free engineers from controlling the data schema, EO even comes with a data modelor that can automatically generate Obj-C or Java classes to manipulate your database data.
IMHO, than rocks. I've written server scripts with raw SQL statements, and trust me, this is much easier. Even if we don't reuse it for 30 years. The main problem I see is that EnterpriseObjects in particular has like 6 billion layers of abstraction, so the performance is never quite what you'd like. It seems like there'd be some kind of compromise, though.
Heh... okay, adequately addressed in other posts. But they weren't there when I started writing, I promise!
So, basically what I mean is, I don't know what I'm talking about here, but the claim that "they don't consume energy" smells funny based on the little I did learn about quantum computing at one point. Like, even if it's theoretically true, it's deceptive to put it just that way. So, can someone more versed in physics enlighten me and the /. crowd at large?
What bugs me is that so many people can't see that this is racist. Because there was an explicitly racist period in our history and the damages done were never properly redressed, there are disproportionately many disadvantaged African Americans in this country. To ignore this status quo ("Hey! We're not racist, we're just in it for the money!") is to perpetuate it, and that is an act of racism.
Moderation on slashdot is getting horrid. I REALLY wish we could meta-mod specific posts instead of having to do 10 random ones.
For one thing, it is (of course) theme-able, so if you don't like the green, change it. Already an improvement over MS-explorer. And then, the file icons aren't just improved, there's also varying levels of detail about each file based on how far you "zoom" in or out. So, you can go from just the plane-jane name up to "this file has X items and was last modified at 4:30." I'm not sure, but I'm hoping this level of detail is configurable and maybe you can even get full details in a floating tooltip or something.
Granted, this isn't exactly revolutionizing the way you interact with your computer, but it is some slick stuff and I dare say better than what we've currently got. Speaking of which:
Most people don't use this mode, though, because the typical browser is a bad interface choice for system & file operations.Okay, now I must be missing something: if most people don't use this mode, what DO they use? Almost everyone I know (all the windows users anyway) uses an interface exactly like this to navigate their filesystems. Why? If nothing else, then because it's the default setup on win98 and ME. Unless you're talking about something totally different, then this Eazel interface should be super intuitive to windows users, as well as having some added benefits like the ones I mentioned above.