for my senator anyway, I am represented as 1 out of about 18 million. How much representation do you expect a single citizen to get?
This is why I am astonished anytime some nutjob accuses me of being some kind of pro-slavery anarchist when I support states rights. I don't know about you, but I have waaaaay more clout with my state reps than the numbskulls we send to Congress. The Federal government definitely has its place, but it sure as hell ain't micromanaging every aspect of my life. The less power the feds have, the safer I feel.
As a high school teacher, I often assign a score of 50 to anything less than a 50. Why? Because it's fundamentally unfair to offer a student with a 60 (a failing grade) a "smaller spread" to get to a 70 than a student who bombs a test with a 20 (also a failing grade). Why should one failing student have an opportunity to make up for a bad test grade, while giving another failing student no opportunity to do the same? The concept of having a 70-point spread for failing students, and a 30-point spread for passing students (on a scale of 100) is fundamentally flawed.
Learning is not a "feelgood" exercise. A student who earns a 20% really has almost no understanding of the material. Either the student is immersed beyond their capabilities, or has made no effort at all. In either case, are you doing that student any favors by assigning an undeserved grade? I completely understand giving the student a chance to work hard and retake the test and prove mastery if the effort is genuine, but "fixing" the score is just wrong.
The ridiculousness of the situation reminds me of some of my own college courses. A class would be graded on a curve where the highest grade in the class was a 55, so that a 29 was passing. Clearly there was some problem, when the entire class average of a senior level engineering course was in the low forties. Passing grades were clearly unwarranted since either nobody in the class understood the material or the teaching/testing was flawed.
I've long since reconciled myself to the fact that while I believe in intellectual property rights, most people around me don't.
In an ownership society, it is business suicide to deny common sense ownership rights. Abuse of and suppression of control and ownership common sense rights of the citizenry coupled with monopolistic pricing have lead to the inevitable contempt of the law. Copyright cartels lament that they are now sowing what they reaped and they reaped the whirlwind. Don't point the finger at Slashdot readers. Grandmothers, children, and the average Joe have no respect for those "intellectual property rights" despite expensive ad campaigns and and legal terrorism by the copyright cartels.
Perhaps you should point the finger of blame on Sonny Bono, Orrin Hatch, Disney Corporation, and other copyright concerns rather than complain about a bunch of something-for-nothing Slashdot layabouts. Your government does not protect you or your intellectual works. It protects the profits of multinational media companies even if it means that it criminalizes the vast majority of its own population.
"The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic," is fundamentally reasonable, even if that justification wasn't appropriate to the case.
The keyword there is FALSELY. It is not "illegal" to shout fire in a theater. In fact, I would hope that someone would do just that in the event of a fire. The key issue of the MIT students is prior restraint of free speech simply because a party doesn't like what they believe they might hear.
The No Fly List is pure, weapons grade bullshit. If they've done something, arrest them or deport them. If they haven't done anything worthy of that, why do we keep them from flying?
The first time I glanced at a commercial, I just assumed it was another video game they were hawking for Christmas. It was only when I heard "starts Friday" that I realized it was a movie. It sure as hell ain't Pixar. Or Dreamworks for that matter...
You seem to be assuming that no one with large debts has ever moved and/or changed phone numbers. They do.
Love,
Captain Obvious
Well Captain...
Calling three or four times a day for two months by computer to a phone number belonging to a person who only shares a last name to the debt holder is unconscionable if not illegal. If debt collectors want to try all those numbers, they sure as hell ought to have a human do it. And once they have been notified that they have a wrong number, they ought to face large fines for continuing to call it.
I had some collection agency calling me for two months. For the first four weeks, I would get a call with nobody on the other end. The computer dropped the call.
The I got the recorded message admitting who they were and asking for someone who had the same last name as me. If I held the phone for the "live person," the call would drop. I tried calling multiple times only to have my call dropped or get a recording that nobody was there. My daughter took two live person calls and told them they had the wrong house, but the calls kept coming.
Finally, I called and went through all the direct extension combinations until I reached a human. I immediately went up the food chain to the supervisor level. I had to threaten them with the Ohio Attorney General's office. The calls finally stopped.
I got three or four harassing calls a day for two months from somebody picking out numbers at random from a phonebook based on last name. If it isn't illegal, it sure as hell ought to be.
Though, I personally have no pity to people who fall for phishing sites.
Just remember that 100 is the average IQ. There are as many on the bottom half of the bell as the top. If you need proof, spend some time in a grocery store. I'm actually surprised that some adults can tie their own shoes.
I USED to like Yahoo. I used Yahoo almost exclusively until they decided they liked pop-ups and pop-unders. I was so annoyed, I just abandoned my "My Yahoo" home page and left for Google and never came back.
Google gets it. I don't mind advertising. I actually use Google's ads and buy stuff. I use Firefox now, so pop-ups aren't much of a problem, but Yahoo has nothing to lure me back and Google has done nothing to alienate me.
$50 per month? SBC/Ameritech/AT&T regularly offer their bottom feeder DSL service for $14.95 per month and always offer something for $20. That's as cheap as dialup for most users. If you have a second line, you can drop it and come out way ahead.
The problem really is when either function gets too much control. Marketing tends to get capricious about features and blows huge sums on "research" and end up with a Ford Fiero.
Did I miss some subtle sarcasm or are you just plain wrong? Pontiac made the Fiero...
In other words, China is jumping on the bandwagon of countries that is playing the "Sue Microsoft Lottery" to get some extra cash
Dude. That's called Karma. When you work so hard to intentionally screw others, (competitors, customers, employees, etc.) it's bound to come back on you. Microsoft is reaping what they have sown...
Why do you think Bill Gates is working so hard to be Mr. Nice Guy with his foundation lately?
Unless that McDonalds was warned and reprimanded many times for selling dangerously hot coffee, choose to ignore the danger it was clearly aware of, and failed to stop its behavior.
There were 700 incidents in the entire previous decade; 70 incidents per year. Considering the huge numbers of coffee customers of McDonalds worldwide, incidents were almost nonexistent.
Clearly, the MILLIONS of non-retarded customers had no issue with the temperature of coffee served by McDonalds. Clearly, the temperature of service was company policy, and any cognitive repeat customer was aware of it. Irrespective of whatever other restaurants decided to do with their own coffee, McDonalds customers chose to purchase their product.
If I purchase a handgun and decide to carry it in my waistband without making myself aware of the dangers of it, does that make the vendor liable if I shoot myself? As I stated before, coffee is SUPPOSED to be served hot. Stella Liebeck was her own worst enemy and chose to pick the pockets of the "rich company" for her own clumsiness and poor judgment.
As for your assertion of reprimands, I would be interested to know what they were. My research showed nothing of the kind. And as for the assertion that the coffee was too hot, Wikipedia offers the following:
The National Coffee Association instructs that coffee be brewed between 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit (91-96 C) for optimal extraction and consumed immediately. If not consumed immediately, the coffee is to be maintained at 180-185 degrees Fahrenheit.
The entire lawsuit was about jurors punishing a cold and callous company that did not want to help an old and sympathetic (albeit clumsy and judgment impaired) grandmother.
This is just another example of sympathetic jurors punishing the big bad corporation who was (incidentally) acting like a jerk.
McD's INVALIDATED "common sense" by doing something stupid that
no one else was doing.
I call bullshit. ANYBODY who places a foam cup of a hot liquid between their legs in a moving car fails their own common sense. Regardless if the temperature is 150 or 180, it was her own negligent act that caused her burns, period. Anybody who orders coffee can and should expect that coffee to be served at a temperature up to 211 degrees Fahrenheit.
I am old enough to remember the days before Mr. Coffee and Starbucks. People actually used to BOIL water in a percolating coffee pot. Mrs. Liebeck, a 79-year-old in 1992, should have known better too. She was elderly and wearing form fitting sweatpants. The injury would not have been so substantial on a younger person or if she were wearing different clothes. It's unfortunate, but it doesn't mean that McDonalds was to blame for her misfortune.
Incidentally, the temperature spread was only twenty degrees, not thirty. details... details...
I must admit, I will never understand why anyone would willingly want to cede local rights to an unresponsive, corrupt, Federal Government. Cripes, they might as well amend the Constitution to say "We the Corporations."
The key word is "extended." I don't give a shit if it's daylight savings time or standard time as long as it doesn't change. I don't like the damn flip flopping twice a year.
Do you really care if the sun is on peak at noon or at 11:00? I don't.
I saw a lot of Andy Kaufman in my day including the SNL bits like Mighty Mouse and wrestling women. Andy was only (moderately) funny doing Latka. I never understood how he could ever get back on TV. He wasn't funny. He wasn't entertaining. He was just a jerk and maybe a disturbed one at that.
I'm a guy that likes to laugh. I have a pretty good sense of humor and even laugh at stuff my wife finds juvenile, but I always found Andy just... dumb and annoying.
This sounds very interesting. I highly suggest putting fixed cannons on the back of your transportation vehicle and firing them in a steady interval. Any other way way would be pure insanity!
My God, Mr. Scott. You've invented impulse engines. Now get started on that warp drive.
Don't expect to have time to do anything if the feds bust down your door and want your boxes. Plus, now your machine doesn't even have to be turned off for someone to remove it to a forensic lab: introducing HotPlug.
How about if I hit the reset button instead of the power button? The POST clears the DRAM during the pre-boot sequence.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess us insane Americans with our assault rifle fetishes aren't looking so crazy anymore, eh?
This is why I am astonished anytime some nutjob accuses me of being some kind of pro-slavery anarchist when I support states rights. I don't know about you, but I have waaaaay more clout with my state reps than the numbskulls we send to Congress. The Federal government definitely has its place, but it sure as hell ain't micromanaging every aspect of my life. The less power the feds have, the safer I feel.
Is that the British variant of what we USAians call a throw-out bearing?
Yeah, but can it survive DBAN? http://www.dban.org/
Learning is not a "feelgood" exercise. A student who earns a 20% really has almost no understanding of the material. Either the student is immersed beyond their capabilities, or has made no effort at all. In either case, are you doing that student any favors by assigning an undeserved grade? I completely understand giving the student a chance to work hard and retake the test and prove mastery if the effort is genuine, but "fixing" the score is just wrong.
The ridiculousness of the situation reminds me of some of my own college courses. A class would be graded on a curve where the highest grade in the class was a 55, so that a 29 was passing. Clearly there was some problem, when the entire class average of a senior level engineering course was in the low forties. Passing grades were clearly unwarranted since either nobody in the class understood the material or the teaching/testing was flawed.
I've long since reconciled myself to the fact that while I believe in intellectual property rights, most people around me don't.
In an ownership society, it is business suicide to deny common sense ownership rights. Abuse of and suppression of control and ownership common sense rights of the citizenry coupled with monopolistic pricing have lead to the inevitable contempt of the law. Copyright cartels lament that they are now sowing what they reaped and they reaped the whirlwind. Don't point the finger at Slashdot readers. Grandmothers, children, and the average Joe have no respect for those "intellectual property rights" despite expensive ad campaigns and and legal terrorism by the copyright cartels.
Perhaps you should point the finger of blame on Sonny Bono, Orrin Hatch, Disney Corporation, and other copyright concerns rather than complain about a bunch of something-for-nothing Slashdot layabouts. Your government does not protect you or your intellectual works. It protects the profits of multinational media companies even if it means that it criminalizes the vast majority of its own population.
The keyword there is FALSELY. It is not "illegal" to shout fire in a theater. In fact, I would hope that someone would do just that in the event of a fire. The key issue of the MIT students is prior restraint of free speech simply because a party doesn't like what they believe they might hear.
The No Fly List is pure, weapons grade bullshit. If they've done something, arrest them or deport them. If they haven't done anything worthy of that, why do we keep them from flying?
The first time I glanced at a commercial, I just assumed it was another video game they were hawking for Christmas. It was only when I heard "starts Friday" that I realized it was a movie. It sure as hell ain't Pixar. Or Dreamworks for that matter...
Well Captain...
Calling three or four times a day for two months by computer to a phone number belonging to a person who only shares a last name to the debt holder is unconscionable if not illegal. If debt collectors want to try all those numbers, they sure as hell ought to have a human do it. And once they have been notified that they have a wrong number, they ought to face large fines for continuing to call it.
I had some collection agency calling me for two months. For the first four weeks, I would get a call with nobody on the other end. The computer dropped the call.
The I got the recorded message admitting who they were and asking for someone who had the same last name as me. If I held the phone for the "live person," the call would drop. I tried calling multiple times only to have my call dropped or get a recording that nobody was there. My daughter took two live person calls and told them they had the wrong house, but the calls kept coming.
Finally, I called and went through all the direct extension combinations until I reached a human. I immediately went up the food chain to the supervisor level. I had to threaten them with the Ohio Attorney General's office. The calls finally stopped.
I got three or four harassing calls a day for two months from somebody picking out numbers at random from a phonebook based on last name. If it isn't illegal, it sure as hell ought to be.
Just remember that 100 is the average IQ. There are as many on the bottom half of the bell as the top. If you need proof, spend some time in a grocery store. I'm actually surprised that some adults can tie their own shoes.
Acturally, it's peesel or assholine.
I USED to like Yahoo. I used Yahoo almost exclusively until they decided they liked pop-ups and pop-unders. I was so annoyed, I just abandoned my "My Yahoo" home page and left for Google and never came back.
Google gets it. I don't mind advertising. I actually use Google's ads and buy stuff. I use Firefox now, so pop-ups aren't much of a problem, but Yahoo has nothing to lure me back and Google has done nothing to alienate me.
$50 per month? SBC/Ameritech/AT&T regularly offer their bottom feeder DSL service for $14.95 per month and always offer something for $20. That's as cheap as dialup for most users. If you have a second line, you can drop it and come out way ahead.
Did I miss some subtle sarcasm or are you just plain wrong? Pontiac made the Fiero...
It's settled. I have an average American waist!
Dude. That's called Karma. When you work so hard to intentionally screw others, (competitors, customers, employees, etc.) it's bound to come back on you. Microsoft is reaping what they have sown...
Why do you think Bill Gates is working so hard to be Mr. Nice Guy with his foundation lately?
There were 700 incidents in the entire previous decade; 70 incidents per year. Considering the huge numbers of coffee customers of McDonalds worldwide, incidents were almost nonexistent.
Clearly, the MILLIONS of non-retarded customers had no issue with the temperature of coffee served by McDonalds. Clearly, the temperature of service was company policy, and any cognitive repeat customer was aware of it. Irrespective of whatever other restaurants decided to do with their own coffee, McDonalds customers chose to purchase their product.
If I purchase a handgun and decide to carry it in my waistband without making myself aware of the dangers of it, does that make the vendor liable if I shoot myself? As I stated before, coffee is SUPPOSED to be served hot. Stella Liebeck was her own worst enemy and chose to pick the pockets of the "rich company" for her own clumsiness and poor judgment.
As for your assertion of reprimands, I would be interested to know what they were. My research showed nothing of the kind. And as for the assertion that the coffee was too hot, Wikipedia offers the following:
The entire lawsuit was about jurors punishing a cold and callous company that did not want to help an old and sympathetic (albeit clumsy and judgment impaired) grandmother.
I call bullshit. ANYBODY who places a foam cup of a hot liquid between their legs in a moving car fails their own common sense. Regardless if the temperature is 150 or 180, it was her own negligent act that caused her burns, period. Anybody who orders coffee can and should expect that coffee to be served at a temperature up to 211 degrees Fahrenheit.
I am old enough to remember the days before Mr. Coffee and Starbucks. People actually used to BOIL water in a percolating coffee pot. Mrs. Liebeck, a 79-year-old in 1992, should have known better too. She was elderly and wearing form fitting sweatpants. The injury would not have been so substantial on a younger person or if she were wearing different clothes. It's unfortunate, but it doesn't mean that McDonalds was to blame for her misfortune.
Incidentally, the temperature spread was only twenty degrees, not thirty. details... details...
I must admit, I will never understand why anyone would willingly want to cede local rights to an unresponsive, corrupt, Federal Government. Cripes, they might as well amend the Constitution to say "We the Corporations."
The key word is "extended." I don't give a shit if it's daylight savings time or standard time as long as it doesn't change. I don't like the damn flip flopping twice a year.
Do you really care if the sun is on peak at noon or at 11:00? I don't.
I saw a lot of Andy Kaufman in my day including the SNL bits like Mighty Mouse and wrestling women. Andy was only (moderately) funny doing Latka. I never understood how he could ever get back on TV. He wasn't funny. He wasn't entertaining. He was just a jerk and maybe a disturbed one at that.
I'm a guy that likes to laugh. I have a pretty good sense of humor and even laugh at stuff my wife finds juvenile, but I always found Andy just... dumb and annoying.
My God, Mr. Scott. You've invented impulse engines. Now get started on that warp drive.
How about if I hit the reset button instead of the power button? The POST clears the DRAM during the pre-boot sequence.