Learn2Type offers free typing tutorials in both Dvorak and QWERTY format. It also has typing speed tests that adjust for accuracy.
I haven't gone through the learn2type.org tutorials in their entirety, but I have taken a look at them to get an idea of the correct hand positions. I picked up touch typing through frequent computer use. My speed isn't all that impressive -- it ranges from 60 to 80 wpm depending on the day and the exercise. I find that I type faster when I'm typing something I've composed myself in my head rather than when retyping something that has already been written out on paper or onscreen.
Still, I can understand why they broke in instead of telling the school. It's much more fun to do something illegal, and other people's SSNs are a useful thing to have in case you want to steal their money or identity in the future. If you get caught, you'll just end up living on their tax money.
So that's my idea - a national blacklist of pirates. If somebody cannot obey the basic rules of society, then they should be excluded from society. If pirates want to steal from the music industry, then the music industry should exclude them. It's that simple. One strike, and you're out - no reputable record store will allow you to buy another CD.
Who needs CDs anyway? I hardly listen to any music at all, and I get by fine. Even if pirates were banned from buying CDs, the Internet already has enough music that I don't need the new stuff. And what does Google have to do with your problem, anyway? People don't use Google to find MP3s.
I actually read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings before I read the Chronicles of Narnia. My dad didn't know about the Narnia books, so he read Tolkien to me when I was little. I still enjoy Tolkien, but I'm not so sure I would still enjoy the Chronicles of Narnia so much if I revisited them.
I enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia, but I didn't make the connection with Christianity, either. I'm a non-religious person raised by a non-religious family. I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was attending a Catholic school and taking religion classes which were required by the school.
I tend to be more impulsive when shopping in brick-and-mortar stores because I know that if I put the item back, comparison shop, and then decide to buy it after all, I'll have to make an extra trip. Online, it's easy to comparison shop. Sometimes weeks pass before I decide whether to buy something online, and more often than not, I decide not to buy at all.
Another factor is the credit card. I almost always pay in cash when shopping offline, but online I have to give out my credit card number.
You forgot about boredom and habit. I learn and try to improve myself because I don't have anything more entertaining to do, and once I get in the habit of learning, I'll continue to do it. When I already have food and shelter, and when sex and beer are boring, not to mention disgusting, what else am I going to do?
I used to flag other people ("almost me" things) as grotesque and something to be avoided. I got over it, and I'm sure other people will eventually get over their discomfort with human-like robots.
It's like legos...legos are a toy of creativity. When they start including pre-built shapes to look like spaceships, forts, or castles, it is all over. Who would want pre-built legos?
People like me, who were born without creativity. Even the pre-built Legos were too much for me.
If you really enjoy software, or if you know you're not good with hardware, it may be better to stick with computer science. Switching to hardware can be very difficult and unpleasant if you have absolutely no knack for it. Even if you stick with software, it's still useful to have an understanding of computer architecture.
In my experience, I decided to stick with software because I have zero skill with anything hands-on, whether it be electronics, chemistry experiments, or Legos. I know people who switched from CS to EE or ECE in order to avoid the extremely abstract, theoretical material covered in the CS courses at my alma mater. At the time (1999-2003), CS didn't even have its own option; it fell under the banner of Engineering and Applied Sciences. It ended up easier than EE because you could fill in with less hardcore engineering classes, which may not have been a good thing.
Even if it were an affiliate link, I wouldn't mind letting the affiliate earn some money. Heck, I'd do the same thing if I were an affiliate. Of course, I probably wouldn't buy the book because I'm also stingy.
It's their only sense of identity. I'm serious, it's just as bad as those people who have lots of unnecessary allergies or are picky eaters needlessly, etc.
I'm kind of like that. I used to take pride in being the most unathletic and physically inflexible person I knew. At six years old I couldn't touch my toes, and I always placed last in athletic competitions. Recently, though, I've gotten more flexible and may even have improved my overall athletic ability. Waaaa! I've lost my identity.
In elementary and middle school I spent a lot of time playing Wing Commander, but I doubt it had a negative effect on my intelligence because I managed to balance my playing time with schoolwork by not going out with friends. In high school I spent more time browsing through books than playing games. I could have been less stressed out and possibly smarter if I had done my homework efficiently instead of flipping through encyclopedias or looking ahead in textbooks. I didn't need Google to overload my brain with unnecessary information that I soon forgot anyway.
In college overusing the Internet probably lowered my intelligence a bit. I don't know what my IQ would have been before, but somehow I lost much of my ability to do arithmetic, while my verbal ability stayed about the same and my spatial skills remained as bad as ever.
The Register article claims that email has worsened social relations. I don't know anyone who rushes off to check their email in the middle of a conversation. Maybe that's because my social circle is so limited that there's no point checking my email frequently.
Lack of self-discipline may well be the reason that these people drop out of college to play games. Like you say, lack of self-discipline can lead to addictions, including addiction to games and the Internet. Another possibility, though, is that these people simply don't want to do the work and don't consider it important. Spending most of their time playing games or on the Internet may make them happier and mean more to them than being productive or interacting with people. That was certainly the case with me.
In my first few years of college I spent increasing amounts of time on the Internet or sorting through spam because I didn't want to do the work. I did not suffer withdrawal symptoms when I went without Internet access; I just considered most of my college classes unimportant. In my last year or two I cut down on the Internet because I started to get tired of it. I graduated on time with a good GPA after learning relatively little. Now I still consider my college education unimportant and overrated. The diploma looks nice, but I'm reluctant to do anything with it. If I ended up commuting every day to spend 8+ hours around other people (which is what most productive people do), even if doing things I enjoy, I would only end up too tired and drained to spend or invest any money I earn.
Actually no, they make people look smarter and more professional. Like they've actually made an effort towards their appearance rather than dressing as if they were going to the pub.... Notice how in shops you get better service when you're wearing a suit.
Well, my opinion of suits differs from most other people's. I don't think people in suits look particularly good, and lack of a suit doesn't mean you look like a bum. Being a woman, wearing a suit and tie won't do much for me, but I always feel uncomfortable and awkward when wearing dresses or the feminine equivalent of suits. Luckily for me, I don't have to work in an environment where business attire is required.
You don't own your kids. You owe them at least their food, clothing, and schooling as compensation for bringing them into this world with your genes.
Physical discipline doesn't work in the long run unless it's serious abuse. In the short run, I think my parents' physical discipline may have had a bit of effect, but in the long run, what's the big deal about a bit of temporary pain?
I am perplexed that suits are considered appropriate business attire. Suits don't look much better than other clothes, and most people look just as ugly in suits as they do in casual attire. I'm also perplexed that anyone, including non-geeks, still wants so much interpersonal contact when the Internet is available and probably healthier. And if you accept that you're going to die some day and don't like wearing a suit but lack a better source of income, instead of adapting to a "real" world that you dislike, why not skip the work and starve now?
Interestingly, my self-employed parents didn't teach me much about correct business attire. It's no wonder I rebel against "civilized" behavior when my parents did something as uncivilized as having a child.
If eternal youth is still unavailable by the time I'm 75 years old, I wouldn't mind hibernating until it is. If I get tired of life, there's always suicide.
You can try mybookmarks.com. Once you sign up for an account, you can add bookmarks from the web interface, download an application to add bookmarks, and import and export bookmarks from your browser. But I don't really use it anymore because I ended up adding all my new bookmarks to Firefox without adding them to mybookmarks.com. Now the hierarchies get all messed up when I try to import my bookmarks.
I've never intentionally or mistakenly run a red light, but I have mistakenly blocked an intersection illegally by acting on reflex instead of judgment. I've also turned without signalling when I didn't remember I was supposed to turn until I was already at the intersection. I may have gone through stop signs without fully stopping and then only realized after the fact that I didn't fully stop. This kind of thing happens occasionally, maybe once every few months. In some time periods they may happen more often.
Well, most people would probably dislike solitary. I happen to be someone who talks to herself more than to other people, has very little social interaction, and spends a great deal of time just standing or sitting around by herself. Sometimes it perplexes me that other people don't want to live more like me.
And how do you know I'm a law-abiding citizen? I just haven't been caught yet.;-)
I've toured a prison before, and I've heard enough about it to believe that being housed with the general prison population is a crueler punishment than living in squalor with no light, no room, and no socialization. Maybe for other people it's different. I spend most of my time in a small area of my apartment, doing very little work, surrounded by a month's worth of garbage. Sometimes I stand around or walk around my bathroom for fun. Other times I sit, stand, or lie awake in darkness. If I were assured that I could continue to do this perpetually and have financial security courtesy of taxpayers, I would consider committing a crime, getting caught, and giving up Internet and computer access. But prison isn't really like that.
I guess I wouldn't recommend any major tech school. I was accepted by both MIT and Caltech, and I chose Caltech. Now I think I may have been better off choosing neither. Well, maybe, maybe not. I don't feel the effort required to get through Caltech was worthwhile. The only reasons I don't entirely regret going to Caltech have little to do with the quality of Caltech's tech education.
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I haven't gone through the learn2type.org tutorials in their entirety, but I have taken a look at them to get an idea of the correct hand positions. I picked up touch typing through frequent computer use. My speed isn't all that impressive -- it ranges from 60 to 80 wpm depending on the day and the exercise. I find that I type faster when I'm typing something I've composed myself in my head rather than when retyping something that has already been written out on paper or onscreen.
Still, I can understand why they broke in instead of telling the school. It's much more fun to do something illegal, and other people's SSNs are a useful thing to have in case you want to steal their money or identity in the future. If you get caught, you'll just end up living on their tax money.
Who needs CDs anyway? I hardly listen to any music at all, and I get by fine. Even if pirates were banned from buying CDs, the Internet already has enough music that I don't need the new stuff. And what does Google have to do with your problem, anyway? People don't use Google to find MP3s.
I actually read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings before I read the Chronicles of Narnia. My dad didn't know about the Narnia books, so he read Tolkien to me when I was little. I still enjoy Tolkien, but I'm not so sure I would still enjoy the Chronicles of Narnia so much if I revisited them.
I enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia, but I didn't make the connection with Christianity, either. I'm a non-religious person raised by a non-religious family. I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was attending a Catholic school and taking religion classes which were required by the school.
Well, the free dinners certainly help.
Another factor is the credit card. I almost always pay in cash when shopping offline, but online I have to give out my credit card number.
You forgot about boredom and habit. I learn and try to improve myself because I don't have anything more entertaining to do, and once I get in the habit of learning, I'll continue to do it. When I already have food and shelter, and when sex and beer are boring, not to mention disgusting, what else am I going to do?
I used to flag other people ("almost me" things) as grotesque and something to be avoided. I got over it, and I'm sure other people will eventually get over their discomfort with human-like robots.
People like me, who were born without creativity. Even the pre-built Legos were too much for me.
In my experience, I decided to stick with software because I have zero skill with anything hands-on, whether it be electronics, chemistry experiments, or Legos. I know people who switched from CS to EE or ECE in order to avoid the extremely abstract, theoretical material covered in the CS courses at my alma mater. At the time (1999-2003), CS didn't even have its own option; it fell under the banner of Engineering and Applied Sciences. It ended up easier than EE because you could fill in with less hardcore engineering classes, which may not have been a good thing.
Even if it were an affiliate link, I wouldn't mind letting the affiliate earn some money. Heck, I'd do the same thing if I were an affiliate. Of course, I probably wouldn't buy the book because I'm also stingy.
I'm kind of like that. I used to take pride in being the most unathletic and physically inflexible person I knew. At six years old I couldn't touch my toes, and I always placed last in athletic competitions. Recently, though, I've gotten more flexible and may even have improved my overall athletic ability. Waaaa! I've lost my identity.
In college overusing the Internet probably lowered my intelligence a bit. I don't know what my IQ would have been before, but somehow I lost much of my ability to do arithmetic, while my verbal ability stayed about the same and my spatial skills remained as bad as ever.
The Register article claims that email has worsened social relations. I don't know anyone who rushes off to check their email in the middle of a conversation. Maybe that's because my social circle is so limited that there's no point checking my email frequently.
In my first few years of college I spent increasing amounts of time on the Internet or sorting through spam because I didn't want to do the work. I did not suffer withdrawal symptoms when I went without Internet access; I just considered most of my college classes unimportant. In my last year or two I cut down on the Internet because I started to get tired of it. I graduated on time with a good GPA after learning relatively little. Now I still consider my college education unimportant and overrated. The diploma looks nice, but I'm reluctant to do anything with it. If I ended up commuting every day to spend 8+ hours around other people (which is what most productive people do), even if doing things I enjoy, I would only end up too tired and drained to spend or invest any money I earn.
Well, my opinion of suits differs from most other people's. I don't think people in suits look particularly good, and lack of a suit doesn't mean you look like a bum. Being a woman, wearing a suit and tie won't do much for me, but I always feel uncomfortable and awkward when wearing dresses or the feminine equivalent of suits. Luckily for me, I don't have to work in an environment where business attire is required.
Physical discipline doesn't work in the long run unless it's serious abuse. In the short run, I think my parents' physical discipline may have had a bit of effect, but in the long run, what's the big deal about a bit of temporary pain?
Interestingly, my self-employed parents didn't teach me much about correct business attire. It's no wonder I rebel against "civilized" behavior when my parents did something as uncivilized as having a child.
If eternal youth is still unavailable by the time I'm 75 years old, I wouldn't mind hibernating until it is. If I get tired of life, there's always suicide.
You can try mybookmarks.com. Once you sign up for an account, you can add bookmarks from the web interface, download an application to add bookmarks, and import and export bookmarks from your browser. But I don't really use it anymore because I ended up adding all my new bookmarks to Firefox without adding them to mybookmarks.com. Now the hierarchies get all messed up when I try to import my bookmarks.
I've never intentionally or mistakenly run a red light, but I have mistakenly blocked an intersection illegally by acting on reflex instead of judgment. I've also turned without signalling when I didn't remember I was supposed to turn until I was already at the intersection. I may have gone through stop signs without fully stopping and then only realized after the fact that I didn't fully stop. This kind of thing happens occasionally, maybe once every few months. In some time periods they may happen more often.
And how do you know I'm a law-abiding citizen? I just haven't been caught yet. ;-)
I've toured a prison before, and I've heard enough about it to believe that being housed with the general prison population is a crueler punishment than living in squalor with no light, no room, and no socialization. Maybe for other people it's different. I spend most of my time in a small area of my apartment, doing very little work, surrounded by a month's worth of garbage. Sometimes I stand around or walk around my bathroom for fun. Other times I sit, stand, or lie awake in darkness. If I were assured that I could continue to do this perpetually and have financial security courtesy of taxpayers, I would consider committing a crime, getting caught, and giving up Internet and computer access. But prison isn't really like that.
Ok, so beating criminals may make their lives a living hell. But putting them in solitary? Isn't that like rewarding them?
I guess I wouldn't recommend any major tech school. I was accepted by both MIT and Caltech, and I chose Caltech. Now I think I may have been better off choosing neither. Well, maybe, maybe not. I don't feel the effort required to get through Caltech was worthwhile. The only reasons I don't entirely regret going to Caltech have little to do with the quality of Caltech's tech education.