The spotter / Forward Observer has it easy, its the poor Fire Direction Control bastard that has to factor in those variables.
I didn't know that they had TeraFlop "Toughbooks"! I think that the FDC would have to have some serious atmospheric data and CPU power for calculating those kinds of trajectories.
This round would probably hit the target like a slow meteor strike!
I don't think that kids should go through what I went through. I do however think that this is not the proper response.
"If I find out one of my kids is bullying another kid, either by himself/herself, or along with his/her friends, he/she is going to be in for a world of hurt (Psychologically and possible physically)! I would even lobby the other bullies parents as well." - What I originally said...
"Uh, you do realize that bullying your children makes them into bullies, right? Monkey see, monkey do...
Getting in touch with the other parents and trying to bring them around would be a good thing, though - and a good thing for your kids to see you do." - your response...
Yeah, I didn't mean it that way. Physical punishment would consist of running a few miles with dad, pushups, mowing the lawn, etc... Psych would be the reinstilling the fear of Dad's creatively effective negative reinforcement (Ala Marine Corps)... I'm pretty sure that I won't be a role model for bullying behaviour, but one obviously needs to step back from time to time and be introspective about one's recent actions...
It sounds as though we are in agreement in regards to most of the subjects related to bullying, and I confess that I don't know the exact or purported details of the case. But based upon what I've read, it sounds like the video was obtained and distributed with malicious intent - which definitely falls under civil law, and may or may not fall under criminal.
"They should be sued? Great. Sucking money out of the school system is really going to improve the quality of education.
Instead, legal action (if any) should be taken to force people out of their jobs for not doing them."-Your response...
How many teachers/administrators have you seen get fired unless the school system was under threat from a lawsuit? In my limited experience, not one. If someone has been genuinely wronged, criminally or civilly, litigation isn't a frivolous course of action. Our courts system is designed to 'right' these types of 'wrongs', effectively giving a non-violent means of recourse. Now, that being said, sometimes/oftne the damages being sought by plaintiffs are assinine or unrealistic! I won't argue with you there...:)
***Remember, you don't have to sue strictly for financial damages, plenty of lawsuits are brought up purely to change a system. We also don't know the details of the settlement. Star Wars Kid may not have recieved any money, they may have just recommended counseling for the bullies, probation, etc... A common tactic in lawsuits is to sue for damages just to bring attention to the case and get the defendants to take it seriously (Scare them), but you offer settlement conditions outside of financial awards/monetary damages... I do have a feeling that the parents of the bullies will have to pay something towards the victem's counseling, tutoring, drug prescriptions for a few years... So there was probably some sort of financial award.
"Personally, I was anything but invisible. I was six feet tall in junior high, and I was a mama's boy, and I was constantly harassed in most ways possible in a public place; called names, struck, tripped, had posessions stolen, et cetera."
Martin,
Does this not constitute criminal behaviour ("struck, tripped, had posessions stolen")? If so, then why AREN'T the courts appropriate in his case or your own? Was this video tape not 'missappropriated' and published without the owner's consent?
Kids need to learn what behavior is and isn't appropriate. Unfortunately, many school admins tolerate bullying behavior as 'normal' childhood behavior. Parents tolerate this crap as well. There may be a reason why the country is so litigious, IT IS ONE OF THE LAST WAYS TO BRING ABOUT REAL CHANGE. People don't change unless you hit them where it hurts... Their wallets! Sad, but true.
Kudos to this kid for standing against his bullies in court. He could have chosen to do absolutely nothing, or shoot up the school, after all. Also, IF he went to the school board/administration, and they took no corrective action, they should be sued as well. People send their kids to school to learn the curriculum, not to be harrassed to the point where learning becomes impeded or impossible.
Unfortunately, I myself, went through the same such nonsense throught junior high and early high school years. This kind of ended when, much to my own and my antogonists surprise, we all learned I could fight pretty well when pushed over the edge...
This stuff is damaging to most people, and most people 'snap' one way or the other. Sounds like this kid snapped the bad way. Sounds like you might have too... (Not a flame! You may now be unable to show empathy...)
Thinking that it should be, or it is somehow ok for everyone to have as bad of an experience as you did growing up, just b/c you managed to survive it is wrong (I found this attitude to be prevelent in the Marines as well)! This is a failing of the parents of those bullies, and may also be a failing of the victem's parents as well (A failure of leadership).
If I find out one of my kids is bullying another kid, either by himself/herself, or along with his/her friends, he/she is going to be in for a world of hurt (Psychologically and possible physically)! I would even lobby the other bullies parents as well.
I've seen scenarios where some 'victems' have pretty annoying personality traits and/or they are naturally obnoxious to the other kids which sometimes begs the occasional boxing of ears. If my kid beats on another kid for this reason, I will tell them to ignore the victem and steer clear of him/her - 'OR ELSE'... In other words, it had better not happen again. My kid would also be forced to apologize to the victem and the victem's parents.
Having endured what I did, I have no pitty for bullies (And no remorse for hospitalizing them). I have been known to 'intervene' in blatent bully/victem situations where I didn't know either party (Victem was being physically threatened though).
Bullies usually don't learn their lesson until someone 'badder' than them comes along and turns the tables - IMO. Whether this 'badder' entity is the courts/police or physical negative reinforcement from the victem or a 'victem's rights representative', it doesn't usually matter to the bully (I don't condone the physical negative reinforcment scenario, but I've been guilty of it in the past - Do as I say, not as I do [Kidding]).
LOL... I'd be willing to bet that you own more than 2 guns and have plans to or have already built a bunker on you property...;^)
This is not a flame; I'm just teasing you!
I agree with you. I believe that the internet will be many things, and this micro-service/micro-payment will be a significant slice of the internet pie.
Whether or not this model will come to represent the majority of internet services remains to be seen. I believe there's room enough in the internet for many different transactional/business models, though.;^)
People have commented on here that Windows apps 'like' to have their own box. IMO, I think it comes down to the actual cost of HW and mitigating the risk of having multiple 'important' apps on the same HW.
If I were an IT manager, I'm thinking that I've got some very important windows apps: A, B, and C
I "could" put them all on the same cluster, and they would operate fine; its when you start patching and upgrading them that it begins to get tricky. The other factor is that WIntel HW is very cheap in comparison to SUN/HP - we're talking a fraction of the cost, so why not put each app on its own piece o' HW if the doing so is still a lot cheaper than putting it all on SUN/HP HW.
Another cat on here mentioned that MS was forcing the HW vendors to bundle an MS license with HW purchase. This was happening with Dell a while back, but I'm not sure if this is still the case, and I believe that it may have only been limited to desktop sales - but I'm not positive about it.
When it comes down to it, WIntel HW is rediculously cheap compared to SUN of HP/UX HW; Cheap enough to make it worth while for management to put a single app on one box - even though they have 50 apps to house. So cheap that even when your paying a couple of grand ($3-4) for the OS (W2K3 Server OS) and SUN's OS is free with the HW, you still get more bang for the buck with the Windoze servers, plus less management headaches b/c you've insulated the apps from each other a little more...
But, you wiley Unix fans out there, do not lose faith! Sun OS sales numbers should rebound when coupled with the sales of their new AMD chipped boxes. Those things are kicking the crap out comparable Intel boxes, and should generate some impressive numbers for SUN once everyone catches on. Even if the shop is a Windows outfit, I would still seriously consider buying these SUN AMD servers and then just install Windows Server on it, IF that was what my shop's expertise was in...
Sincerely,
Solaris 10/Opteron Fan Boy
Likewise... I could now lump you into my 'who to blame' list, but that would be childish of me, for I'm sure that if we took the time, we'd find that we probably share many common positions on these, and other topics... But its ok, I served my country in order to protect your right to denounce me regardless of the facts or history...
Do yourself a favor - if you only research one thing I've referenced, google the "Shah of Iran" with a focus on US involvement... The results weren't pretty, and have had long term consequences that we are still dealing with. Then, if you're really frisky, research the history of Isreal and the dissolution of the Palestinian state. After you've digested some of the information, imagine that some foreign powers came to your city/state and said ('Texarkana' state no longer exists, please leave now - Have a nice day). If this had happened to me in my state, you could not imagine the 'resistance' I'd put up. I'd imagine you'd feel the same way...
If I were to elaborate on my positions and comments further, I would add that we (Americans) should re-focus our efforts on - once again - setting a shining example of what can be achieved in regards to personal liberties and human rights. We should base our foreign policies on long term strategies that focus on human rights and nation building, NOT obtaining natural resources or cheap labour pools/manufacturing (Near sighted, resource exploitation goals - e.g. oil). We should probably sprinkle in a little 'historical' and 'cultural' perspective into those future strategies as well.
How do you infer from my comments that my views are extremist? I do not support blowing things up, going to war, picking fights online, etc. just because I *think* that someone holds views contrary to my own...
My original point was that we shouldn't be so 'upset' with China on censorship that we come home from work and 'kick the dog' (Google). More to that original point (Which I wrote in haste, and probably didn't convey what I meant fully) is that if we really want to change China, we need to lead by example (As we have done at various points in the past). If we adopt policies that are truly fair, making the best of whatever the situation is - especially from the perspectives of the people whom are directly affected, where everyone 'wins', people around the globe will take notice...
We have plenty of Human Rights type issues to address here at home. Every time that we have strived for Human Equality and rights, the world has taken notice. We were, and still can be the 'beacon' of freedom and equality. Do you know how much damage our reputation has recieved from GITMO, Abu Ghraib, etc...? Probably incalculable, IMHO. So much so, that we may have lost all short term credibility. We continue to "talk the 'talk'", but we are now viewed as no longer "Walking the 'walk'".
So instead of masking human rights issues in our own country by redirecting focus onto China, I suggest that we address our own problems in ways that are truly noteworthy and/or revolutionary, thereby setting another example for the people of China, and the world, to emulate. I've found that if you show people a truly 'better' way, they'll adopt it.
Semper Fi...
Why villify Google when all americans have personnaly contributed to devaluated human rights over the last few years through our passivity?
I mean, seriously folks, our fearless (Brainless?) leader has really kicked the US over the edge and down the slippery slope to "1984"/Dictatorial style government over the last 8 years and we haven't even so much as flinched while it was happening!!!
And these are the same fools that are horribly concerned with Google's operation in China? As John Stossel would say, "Give me a Break!"
Did the US government not grant China 'Favored Nation' status? Google is doing the best it can and operating in a completely LEGAL manner. They are operating in China b/c the US allows them to.
Stupid & Ultimately Failed Middle East Policies (US sanctioned assinations, coup's, arming fundamentalists, Supporting Isreal's opression of the palestinians, etc...) Rise of Terrorism (Gee whiz, I wonder why they are so upset?) Unification of 'Private' Media Conglomerates 'Special' Interest Groups (I equate 'special', in this case, with retarded - groups usually concerned with protectionism tactics - unconcerned or ingnorant of the consequences) Gulf Wars, I & II (Both Cases built upon 'faulty intelligence' and/or outright lies) Patriot Act (Holding people without charges, indefinitely; Kangaroo courts) State Sanctioned Torture... 'nuf said NSA spying without Court Approval (Further errosion of US 'Checks and Balances')
China? CHINA?
Jesus people! Why don't you worry about the train wreck happening in your back yard before imposing your high moral standard on the neighbors.
This is more evidence that the state control/bias of the 2-3 major US media outlets is continueing to pay them huge dividends!
Sorry for the interuption, you may now go back to sleep...
Hey "Talking",
I cannot agree with you more. The US isn't filtering your traffic, but you'd better believe its monitoring it in nefarious ways (NSA).
To the person that "Talking" is responding to, as for the US being better than China on Human Rights... What rock do you live under? Do you think that as long as it is only the US abusing Human Rights, its OK? The US engages in roughly the same abuses, albeit subtly, with better PR, and on more limited scales. Our government conveniently ignores the Bill of Rights, Treaties, our Constitution, etc... whenever the Bush Administration feels like it. Guantanimo? Abu Ghraib? This isn't only recent history I'm referring to (Or just this Administration)... Indians? Civil Rights - Blacks? Vietnam?
Human Rights isn't just something you write down on a paper, ratify, and everyone lives happily everafter. You have to aggressively monitor/enforce it, and constantly adjust the model to ensure success. We all know what evils human beings are capable when properly motivated or stressed...
We, Americans, are not perfect, especially when it comes to abusing 'the system'. We do have high asperations, but occasionally we fall flat on our faces...
Anyways, think of handing it over to the UN as a way of 'Open Sourcing' the net. Yes, we will lose a lot of control over it and it will probably expose some the NSA's bag o' tricks, but it will then become subject to all of its customer's needs, not just the American customers... Besides, everyone votes on it, and we have one of the weightiest votes around. It will be one more encouragement for the US not to ignore our allies whenever they become a slight inconvenience to us on an issue (Which might prevent us from throwing 300 Billion dollars down a hole in some far away desert again in the future)
Slashdot Mirror
The spotter / Forward Observer has it easy, its the poor Fire Direction Control bastard that has to factor in those variables.
;=
I didn't know that they had TeraFlop "Toughbooks"! I think that the FDC would have to have some serious atmospheric data and CPU power for calculating those kinds of trajectories.
This round would probably hit the target like a slow meteor strike!
Wow...
Former Marine Corps Forward Observer here, BTW...
Semper Fi
"If I find out one of my kids is bullying another kid, either by himself/herself, or along with his/her friends, he/she is going to be in for a world of hurt (Psychologically and possible physically)! I would even lobby the other bullies parents as well." - What I originally said...
I totally agree with the sentiment of your statements...
LOL... I'd be willing to bet that you own more than 2 guns and have plans to or have already built a bunker on you property... ;^)
This is not a flame; I'm just teasing you!
I agree with you. I believe that the internet will be many things, and this micro-service/micro-payment will be a significant slice of the internet pie. Whether or not this model will come to represent the majority of internet services remains to be seen. I believe there's room enough in the internet for many different transactional/business models, though. ;^)
People have commented on here that Windows apps 'like' to have their own box. IMO, I think it comes down to the actual cost of HW and mitigating the risk of having multiple 'important' apps on the same HW. If I were an IT manager, I'm thinking that I've got some very important windows apps: A, B, and C I "could" put them all on the same cluster, and they would operate fine; its when you start patching and upgrading them that it begins to get tricky. The other factor is that WIntel HW is very cheap in comparison to SUN/HP - we're talking a fraction of the cost, so why not put each app on its own piece o' HW if the doing so is still a lot cheaper than putting it all on SUN/HP HW. Another cat on here mentioned that MS was forcing the HW vendors to bundle an MS license with HW purchase. This was happening with Dell a while back, but I'm not sure if this is still the case, and I believe that it may have only been limited to desktop sales - but I'm not positive about it. When it comes down to it, WIntel HW is rediculously cheap compared to SUN of HP/UX HW; Cheap enough to make it worth while for management to put a single app on one box - even though they have 50 apps to house. So cheap that even when your paying a couple of grand ($3-4) for the OS (W2K3 Server OS) and SUN's OS is free with the HW, you still get more bang for the buck with the Windoze servers, plus less management headaches b/c you've insulated the apps from each other a little more... But, you wiley Unix fans out there, do not lose faith! Sun OS sales numbers should rebound when coupled with the sales of their new AMD chipped boxes. Those things are kicking the crap out comparable Intel boxes, and should generate some impressive numbers for SUN once everyone catches on. Even if the shop is a Windows outfit, I would still seriously consider buying these SUN AMD servers and then just install Windows Server on it, IF that was what my shop's expertise was in... Sincerely, Solaris 10/Opteron Fan Boy
Likewise... I could now lump you into my 'who to blame' list, but that would be childish of me, for I'm sure that if we took the time, we'd find that we probably share many common positions on these, and other topics... But its ok, I served my country in order to protect your right to denounce me regardless of the facts or history... Do yourself a favor - if you only research one thing I've referenced, google the "Shah of Iran" with a focus on US involvement... The results weren't pretty, and have had long term consequences that we are still dealing with. Then, if you're really frisky, research the history of Isreal and the dissolution of the Palestinian state. After you've digested some of the information, imagine that some foreign powers came to your city/state and said ('Texarkana' state no longer exists, please leave now - Have a nice day). If this had happened to me in my state, you could not imagine the 'resistance' I'd put up. I'd imagine you'd feel the same way... If I were to elaborate on my positions and comments further, I would add that we (Americans) should re-focus our efforts on - once again - setting a shining example of what can be achieved in regards to personal liberties and human rights. We should base our foreign policies on long term strategies that focus on human rights and nation building, NOT obtaining natural resources or cheap labour pools/manufacturing (Near sighted, resource exploitation goals - e.g. oil). We should probably sprinkle in a little 'historical' and 'cultural' perspective into those future strategies as well. How do you infer from my comments that my views are extremist? I do not support blowing things up, going to war, picking fights online, etc. just because I *think* that someone holds views contrary to my own... My original point was that we shouldn't be so 'upset' with China on censorship that we come home from work and 'kick the dog' (Google). More to that original point (Which I wrote in haste, and probably didn't convey what I meant fully) is that if we really want to change China, we need to lead by example (As we have done at various points in the past). If we adopt policies that are truly fair, making the best of whatever the situation is - especially from the perspectives of the people whom are directly affected, where everyone 'wins', people around the globe will take notice... We have plenty of Human Rights type issues to address here at home. Every time that we have strived for Human Equality and rights, the world has taken notice. We were, and still can be the 'beacon' of freedom and equality. Do you know how much damage our reputation has recieved from GITMO, Abu Ghraib, etc...? Probably incalculable, IMHO. So much so, that we may have lost all short term credibility. We continue to "talk the 'talk'", but we are now viewed as no longer "Walking the 'walk'". So instead of masking human rights issues in our own country by redirecting focus onto China, I suggest that we address our own problems in ways that are truly noteworthy and/or revolutionary, thereby setting another example for the people of China, and the world, to emulate. I've found that if you show people a truly 'better' way, they'll adopt it. Semper Fi...
Why villify Google when all americans have personnaly contributed to devaluated human rights over the last few years through our passivity?
I mean, seriously folks, our fearless (Brainless?) leader has really kicked the US over the edge and down the slippery slope to "1984"/Dictatorial style government over the last 8 years and we haven't even so much as flinched while it was happening!!!
And these are the same fools that are horribly concerned with Google's operation in China? As John Stossel would say, "Give me a Break!"
Did the US government not grant China 'Favored Nation' status? Google is doing the best it can and operating in a completely LEGAL manner. They are operating in China b/c the US allows them to.
Stupid & Ultimately Failed Middle East Policies (US sanctioned assinations, coup's, arming fundamentalists, Supporting Isreal's opression of the palestinians, etc...)
Rise of Terrorism (Gee whiz, I wonder why they are so upset?)
Unification of 'Private' Media Conglomerates
'Special' Interest Groups (I equate 'special', in this case, with retarded - groups usually concerned with protectionism tactics - unconcerned or ingnorant of the consequences)
Gulf Wars, I & II (Both Cases built upon 'faulty intelligence' and/or outright lies)
Patriot Act (Holding people without charges, indefinitely; Kangaroo courts)
State Sanctioned Torture... 'nuf said
NSA spying without Court Approval (Further errosion of US 'Checks and Balances')
China? CHINA?
Jesus people! Why don't you worry about the train wreck happening in your back yard before imposing your high moral standard on the neighbors.
This is more evidence that the state control/bias of the 2-3 major US media outlets is continueing to pay them huge dividends!
Sorry for the interuption, you may now go back to sleep...
Came across the perfect quote from Douglas Adams:
I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), The Salmon of Doubt, p. 95
Hey "Talking", I cannot agree with you more. The US isn't filtering your traffic, but you'd better believe its monitoring it in nefarious ways (NSA). To the person that "Talking" is responding to, as for the US being better than China on Human Rights... What rock do you live under? Do you think that as long as it is only the US abusing Human Rights, its OK? The US engages in roughly the same abuses, albeit subtly, with better PR, and on more limited scales. Our government conveniently ignores the Bill of Rights, Treaties, our Constitution, etc... whenever the Bush Administration feels like it. Guantanimo? Abu Ghraib? This isn't only recent history I'm referring to (Or just this Administration)... Indians? Civil Rights - Blacks? Vietnam? Human Rights isn't just something you write down on a paper, ratify, and everyone lives happily everafter. You have to aggressively monitor/enforce it, and constantly adjust the model to ensure success. We all know what evils human beings are capable when properly motivated or stressed... We, Americans, are not perfect, especially when it comes to abusing 'the system'. We do have high asperations, but occasionally we fall flat on our faces... Anyways, think of handing it over to the UN as a way of 'Open Sourcing' the net. Yes, we will lose a lot of control over it and it will probably expose some the NSA's bag o' tricks, but it will then become subject to all of its customer's needs, not just the American customers... Besides, everyone votes on it, and we have one of the weightiest votes around. It will be one more encouragement for the US not to ignore our allies whenever they become a slight inconvenience to us on an issue (Which might prevent us from throwing 300 Billion dollars down a hole in some far away desert again in the future)