It's about time this sort of thing hit the news. My wife and I made the decision 25 years ago in favor of "unschooling," a term already then in use, when our oldest child was about five years old and it was time to start thinking about schools. He is now 30, the youngest of our four is 21, all were unschooled exactly in keeping with the principles outlined in this article: that all of life is learning. All of these four, by the way, have gone on to higher education (their first real "school" experiences) and three of the four now have good jobs in information technology, while the other continues his further education. The same three, by the way, have worked in IT in our local public school system, and one now does the same kind of work for a community college.
Close, but no cigar. Corporations may be people in some legal respects, but they sure as hell can't vote. It's people like us who give politicians their jobs, and it's people like us who can just as easily take them away.
Corporations are, in fact, fictional persons created by the government. Their "birth certificate" consists of a corporate charter issued by a governmental body. They vote with their dollars, not their ballots, but, like other artificial monsters of legend, they have no soul.
Here's the deal. Net neutrality is, roughly speaking, the status quo. It is absolutely NOT the case that a bunch of crazy-eyed liberal activists are trying to get congress to pass new laws creating a bureaucratic set of regulations called "Net Neutrality." It IS the case that a handful of huge corporations are trying to get congress to pass new laws by-passing the existing anti-monopoly laws and thus allowing the entire character of how internet traffic happens to change. It would be the imposition of new regulations, imposed by the companies that stand to profit thereby, at the expense of everyone else. The call for Net Neutrality is simply a call for the government to DO NOTHING, PLEASE and leave well enough alone.
Just so we're clear.
Now that Apple Computer has quietly made it known that its new Intel-based Macs will be able to dual-boot into Windows, we finally will have a basis for benchmark comparisons which will be.... well.... Apples to Apples.
Looks to me like it's a market share move more to Apple's advantage, making it easier for potential "switchers" who might be attracted by the new MacIntel configurations to keep a level of comfort during the switch. I see it as a defensive move for MS on the anti-trust front, where they've had more than their share of troubles and don't need new ones, and a positive gain for Apple. If it turns out to be the case that this is part of a secret settlement wherin Apple already had MS by the short hairs, this would make a lot of sense.
Actually, when the Patriot Act was passed there was considerable discussion regarding this exact issue, and assurances were made that the PA wouldn't be used except for clear-cut cases of terrorism.
Trouble is, "assurances," no matter how nicely made, do not have the force of law; neither do discussions, no matter how civil. What matters is what was actually enacted. The Greeks made "assurances" to the Trojans that the giant horse was being given as a token of goodwill. This made no difference once the horse was inside.
I appreciate the recommendation to buy anti-virus software, however: AV software doesn't seem to be a silver bullet on this one, at least not yet. This particular exploit isn't yet detected by the one bit of antivirus software I happen to have; McAfee Virex version 7.2 (v1.1), --last updated on March 24--reports it as clean, not infected. Doubtless the next update will add an algorithm for this sort of thing, but I'll keep the proof-of-concept file on hand until then, just to see.
Perhaps there's a more robust AV package out there that would catch this. For now I'll lay no bets.
For your spreadsheet, try using Gnumeric as a companion to Abiword.
The X11 layer is still a minor annoyance, but the slowdown there is really only on startup, and the advantage of having the world of open source software at my fingertips is huge -- especially since I can go from my g3 desktop to my linux laptop without skipping a beat.
I'm one of those who "settled" for a mini because the regular ipod I've longed for was just a bit out of reach. I also, for similar reasons, drive a Chevrolet.
This price point follows the layered marketing model (complete with planned obsolescence) that Apple seems to have quite consistently borrowed from General Motors. Sure, no one who drives Cadillacs would look even once at a Chevy, and a Buick is only a bit more pricey than a Pontiac; but market share is about getting new customers, not pleasing those already in the fold. What about all those people out there driving cheap Fords?
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My four unschooled children have grown up to be IT professionals.
It's about time this sort of thing hit the news. My wife and I made the decision 25 years ago in favor of "unschooling," a term already then in use, when our oldest child was about five years old and it was time to start thinking about schools. He is now 30, the youngest of our four is 21, all were unschooled exactly in keeping with the principles outlined in this article: that all of life is learning. All of these four, by the way, have gone on to higher education (their first real "school" experiences) and three of the four now have good jobs in information technology, while the other continues his further education. The same three, by the way, have worked in IT in our local public school system, and one now does the same kind of work for a community college.
Close, but no cigar. Corporations may be people in some legal respects, but they sure as hell can't vote. It's people like us who give politicians their jobs, and it's people like us who can just as easily take them away.
Corporations are, in fact, fictional persons created by the government. Their "birth certificate" consists of a corporate charter issued by a governmental body. They vote with their dollars, not their ballots, but, like other artificial monsters of legend, they have no soul.
Actually, I found a bug in the feature. My G4 screen went black one week before the end of the one-year warranty period.
Here's the deal. Net neutrality is, roughly speaking, the status quo. It is absolutely NOT the case that a bunch of crazy-eyed liberal activists are trying to get congress to pass new laws creating a bureaucratic set of regulations called "Net Neutrality." It IS the case that a handful of huge corporations are trying to get congress to pass new laws by-passing the existing anti-monopoly laws and thus allowing the entire character of how internet traffic happens to change. It would be the imposition of new regulations, imposed by the companies that stand to profit thereby, at the expense of everyone else. The call for Net Neutrality is simply a call for the government to DO NOTHING, PLEASE and leave well enough alone. Just so we're clear.
Now that Apple Computer has quietly made it known that its new Intel-based Macs will be able to dual-boot into Windows, we finally will have a basis for benchmark comparisons which will be.... well.... Apples to Apples.
Looks to me like it's a market share move more to Apple's advantage, making it easier for potential "switchers" who might be attracted by the new MacIntel configurations to keep a level of comfort during the switch. I see it as a defensive move for MS on the anti-trust front, where they've had more than their share of troubles and don't need new ones, and a positive gain for Apple. If it turns out to be the case that this is part of a secret settlement wherin Apple already had MS by the short hairs, this would make a lot of sense.
Trouble is, "assurances," no matter how nicely made, do not have the force of law; neither do discussions, no matter how civil. What matters is what was actually enacted. The Greeks made "assurances" to the Trojans that the giant horse was being given as a token of goodwill. This made no difference once the horse was inside.
I appreciate the recommendation to buy anti-virus software, however: AV software doesn't seem to be a silver bullet on this one, at least not yet. This particular exploit isn't yet detected by the one bit of antivirus software I happen to have; McAfee Virex version 7.2 (v1.1), --last updated on March 24--reports it as clean, not infected. Doubtless the next update will add an algorithm for this sort of thing, but I'll keep the proof-of-concept file on hand until then, just to see.
Perhaps there's a more robust AV package out there that would catch this. For now I'll lay no bets.
For your spreadsheet, try using Gnumeric as a companion to Abiword. The X11 layer is still a minor annoyance, but the slowdown there is really only on startup, and the advantage of having the world of open source software at my fingertips is huge -- especially since I can go from my g3 desktop to my linux laptop without skipping a beat.
I'm one of those who "settled" for a mini because the regular ipod I've longed for was just a bit out of reach. I also, for similar reasons, drive a Chevrolet.
This price point follows the layered marketing model (complete with planned obsolescence) that Apple seems to have quite consistently borrowed from General Motors. Sure, no one who drives Cadillacs would look even once at a Chevy, and a Buick is only a bit more pricey than a Pontiac; but market share is about getting new customers, not pleasing those already in the fold. What about all those people out there driving cheap Fords?