I've noticed reliable wifi in North American hotels almost always comes at a price.
What surprised me on a recent road trip from Hanoi to Saigon was the *standard* free wifi at every hotel we stayed at. Wifi cafés were also plentiful everywhere. It seemed strange that a developing country was so far in advance of North America in terms of internet access. Oddly enough the Facebook web site was unreachable (although smartphone apps could read and post to Facebook without any problem).
A friend in the marketing arm of MS told me recently that netbooks scare the crap out of MS because they can't expect the OEM to pay the usual MS license fee on an item with such a tiny profit margin.
I just bought an eeePC for $300 (Cnd) and within hours had replaced the version of Win XP Home that came with it with the Ubuntu UNR 9.04. I would have preferred to get it with Linux preinstalled, but that just wasn't an option (I'm in Vancouver).
Every netbook sold hurts MS a little bit because it's a computer sale that won't earn them the revenue they've come to rely on (relative to desktop and laptop license fees).
>Isn't this a site of intellectuals and scientists?
>Or is it a site of people with emotional problems who feel the
>need to lash out at random people to make themselves feel big?
Boy, you must be *really* new around here. Pretty clearly the answer is "both".
The NAME of the charity is "Child's Play". How is that hard to understand? I'm glad the other posts helped you figure it out, but the/.er you object to merely called you out for being lazy.
The answer to your question is right here and it would have taken you far less time to answer the question yourself than it did to type it up.
Just like it would have taken way less time for me to ignore your self-pitying remarks and just donate to Child's Play myself. I guess I just felt the need to lash out AND donate to charity. Off I go.
> Stupid meaningless variations on the "poke" appear like "sending drinks" and
> now my fiance's Facebook wall has a video of Shrek and Donkey gangbanging
> princess fiona
I remember back in high school, I brought a camera in to school and they took it away and kept it all day, so I could get it before I went home for the day, that is not because of the disruption it made, I was very careful not to run it during class, it was because it represents a danger to their power base, if I got something they do wrong on video, it would cause them problems, and they do a great deal wrong in our schools, only an idiot does not think so.
They're certainly not doing a very good job teaching punctuation.
Actually, my students *are* subordinate to me in class. Want to know why? Two reasons:
1) Legal: *I'm* liable for the shit that happens in the classroom. If I'm going to be saddled with the responsibility (and I should be -- that's one reason they pay me), then I better have some tools at my disposal to control student behaviour.
2) Educational: There's me, there's the curriculum, and there's 20-30 students. If one or two decide to fuck around and disrupt class, am I supposed to sit on my hands until they decide to let the class proceed? You think maybe the rest of the students might be there to learn something?
There should be no power without responsibility, but there should also be no responsibility without commensurate power. If a student starts to disrupt my class, they're out the door so fast their heads spin. This joker might get his suspension overturned, but he'd never set foot in a classroom of mine ever again.
Today's lesson: "Your actions have motherfucking CONSEQUENCES."
> that a publication like the NY Times still hasn't figured out what a cookie is, or worse, has but yet misrepresents it to scare people
I have to imagine the writer is being spoonfed straight from an MS bottle. The NYT uses cookies *itself* to monitor you when you access its site, so any halfway-credible NYT writer would know better than to play this card. Plus, does the writer really not understand that MSN and Windows Live themselves use cookies to monitor a user's activity?
On Slashdot that comment would get the writer troll-modded to oblivion. What's it doing in a reputable newspaper?
This is the evidence I've been waiting for to prove my hunch!
Sometime in the coming century we invent a time machine, see. And we use it to send all the greenhouse gases back in time to just around the KT period. It's our only chance to keep the planet habitable into the future.
The greenhouse gases, following in the wake of a gigantic asteroid impact, cause a mass extinction event, which creates conditions that lead to the worldwide reserves of petroleum we exploit through the Industrial Revolution and beyond, bringing us full circle.
It's brilliant. Brilliant, I tell you!
Uh, just a sec. There's somebody at the door asking to speak to a "John Connor." Be right back.
I use Wikipedia practically daily. It's a great first stop for a random search, but it doesn't have any credibility as a primary research source.
I think the professors are taking the wrong approach by announcing a ban on it, however. A much better response would be to assign specific Wikipedia entries (or ask students to select their own) related to the course subject, and then make it the students' task to fact-check the entry.
This would force students to look beyond the superficial information Wikipedia offers and also test the accuracy of the information one finds on Wikipedia.
Banning it is just a variation of Eric Cartman's "Respect mah authorit-ay!", whereas using Wikipedia as the basis for a critical thinking assignment might actually teach students something.
Slashdot Mirror
*latest*, dammit, LATEST.
I'm drinking too much.
Or maybe not enough.
Not to worry. They removed that functionality in the lastest version.
An evil, twisted genius.
"A Brazilian!"
That one absolutely never gets old.
Thanks for the advice!
I wrote about an idea for exactly that sort of award (well, almost exactly) back in 2002, you insensitive clod!
I've noticed reliable wifi in North American hotels almost always comes at a price.
What surprised me on a recent road trip from Hanoi to Saigon was the *standard* free wifi at every hotel we stayed at. Wifi cafés were also plentiful everywhere. It seemed strange that a developing country was so far in advance of North America in terms of internet access. Oddly enough the Facebook web site was unreachable (although smartphone apps could read and post to Facebook without any problem).
A friend in the marketing arm of MS told me recently that netbooks scare the crap out of MS because they can't expect the OEM to pay the usual MS license fee on an item with such a tiny profit margin.
I just bought an eeePC for $300 (Cnd) and within hours had replaced the version of Win XP Home that came with it with the Ubuntu UNR 9.04. I would have preferred to get it with Linux preinstalled, but that just wasn't an option (I'm in Vancouver).
Every netbook sold hurts MS a little bit because it's a computer sale that won't earn them the revenue they've come to rely on (relative to desktop and laptop license fees).
Actually Twain copied that quote from Blaise Pascal.
I guess that makes him Microsoft to Pascal's Apple?
If this person isn't modded +5 funny RIGHT NOW I swear I will never read another /. article ever again.
There you go again, snatching all the low-hanging fruit. ;-)
Next up: You must not have RTFA.
I did a search for "Mercedes parts" and the first eight hits were for photos of a particular porn star's naughty bits. Is that irony too?
"If playing every Mario game ever made has taught me anything..." You better sit down. I have something to tell you and I don't think you'll like it.
Pedantic question: Where in Ottawa do you live so that walking to the Parliament Building is *downhill*? Otherwise, go get 'em! (But don't be rude.)
>Or is it a site of people with emotional problems who feel the
>need to lash out at random people to make themselves feel big?
Boy, you must be *really* new around here. Pretty clearly the answer is "both".
The NAME of the charity is "Child's Play". How is that hard to understand? I'm glad the other posts helped you figure it out, but the /.er you object to merely called you out for being lazy.
The answer to your question is right here and it would have taken you far less time to answer the question yourself than it did to type it up.
Just like it would have taken way less time for me to ignore your self-pitying remarks and just donate to Child's Play myself. I guess I just felt the need to lash out AND donate to charity. Off I go.
> now my fiance's Facebook wall has a video of Shrek and Donkey gangbanging
> princess fiona
Shocking! Outrageous! Scandalous!
You, um, got a link for that..?
Argh!
[thud]
I remember back in high school, I brought a camera in to school and they took it away and kept it all day, so I could get it before I went home for the day, that is not because of the disruption it made, I was very careful not to run it during class, it was because it represents a danger to their power base, if I got something they do wrong on video, it would cause them problems, and they do a great deal wrong in our schools, only an idiot does not think so.
They're certainly not doing a very good job teaching punctuation.
Actually, my students *are* subordinate to me in class. Want to know why? Two reasons:
1) Legal: *I'm* liable for the shit that happens in the classroom. If I'm going to be saddled with the responsibility (and I should be -- that's one reason they pay me), then I better have some tools at my disposal to control student behaviour.
2) Educational: There's me, there's the curriculum, and there's 20-30 students. If one or two decide to fuck around and disrupt class, am I supposed to sit on my hands until they decide to let the class proceed? You think maybe the rest of the students might be there to learn something?
There should be no power without responsibility, but there should also be no responsibility without commensurate power. If a student starts to disrupt my class, they're out the door so fast their heads spin. This joker might get his suspension overturned, but he'd never set foot in a classroom of mine ever again.
Today's lesson: "Your actions have motherfucking CONSEQUENCES."
> that a publication like the NY Times still hasn't figured out what a cookie is, or worse, has but yet misrepresents it to scare people
I have to imagine the writer is being spoonfed straight from an MS bottle. The NYT uses cookies *itself* to monitor you when you access its site, so any halfway-credible NYT writer would know better than to play this card. Plus, does the writer really not understand that MSN and Windows Live themselves use cookies to monitor a user's activity?
On Slashdot that comment would get the writer troll-modded to oblivion. What's it doing in a reputable newspaper?
This is the evidence I've been waiting for to prove my hunch!
Sometime in the coming century we invent a time machine, see. And we use it to send all the greenhouse gases back in time to just around the KT period. It's our only chance to keep the planet habitable into the future.
The greenhouse gases, following in the wake of a gigantic asteroid impact, cause a mass extinction event, which creates conditions that lead to the worldwide reserves of petroleum we exploit through the Industrial Revolution and beyond, bringing us full circle.
It's brilliant. Brilliant, I tell you!
Uh, just a sec. There's somebody at the door asking to speak to a "John Connor." Be right back.
It's all that bitch Anne Murray's fault!
I use Wikipedia practically daily. It's a great first stop for a random search, but it doesn't have any credibility as a primary research source.
I think the professors are taking the wrong approach by announcing a ban on it, however. A much better response would be to assign specific Wikipedia entries (or ask students to select their own) related to the course subject, and then make it the students' task to fact-check the entry.
This would force students to look beyond the superficial information Wikipedia offers and also test the accuracy of the information one finds on Wikipedia.
Banning it is just a variation of Eric Cartman's "Respect mah authorit-ay!", whereas using Wikipedia as the basis for a critical thinking assignment might actually teach students something.
My $0.02.
Yeah, I couldn't think of any names, either. Good for you for subtly changing the subject, though!