I must have went to unusual schools (Air Force brat, so I went to a ton of them), but NONE of them allowed us to use general encyclopedias as reference sources for any research beyond 2nd grade. (I did a series of "bug" reports in 2nd grade and basically copied the stuff out of the World Book Encyclopedia in my parent's living room.)
Real accountability is required to improve things... but NOT from the teachers. If your kid isn't doing well in school, then YOU, the PARENT, are to blame.
School is not a place you dump your kids for 12 years and then pick them up when they graduate! You are as responsible for your child's success and failure in school as the teachers! Heck, more so!
Go to a junior high parent/teacher night. Unless a child's parent was specifically "summoned" by the teacher, guess which parents will be there? That's right, the students' who are doing wonderfully. The parents that the teacher desperately needs to talk to, that desperately need to take more active role in their kids' education... no where to be seen.
And if the teachers do try to have a meeting with the parent, instead of trying to work out solutions, the parents will probably be defensive, trying to shift blame anywhere but on darling little Johnny!
Wake up, Johhny is acting like an ass, you ARE an ass, and the failure is not the school system. It is the parenting.
If you want to fix the school systems, make it as least as hard to have a child as it is to drive a car. Make people pass a frigging test proving they know what the hell they're doing!
The eye does read in a small "window." This small window is somewhat analogous to a cache.
Learning is said to be based somewhat on putting new concepts into the existing framework on already "known" data. For geeks, that often means putting new concepts into terms of computer processing.
Only one MATH book is ever in the first round at any one time. Hilbert's book is that one right now.
The logic behind this is simple. Most of our volunteers avoid these books like the plague and if we kept releasing new ones, pretty soon the entire first round would be only MATH books.
To see what's waiting in the queue for English language math books, see here. For Languages Other Than English (LOTE) math books, see here.
Once you login to the site, you'll see all the books currently in the first round. The only MATH book currently in first round is Hilbert's "Foundations of Geometry." There are quite a few books, in English and other languages, waiting in the wings. They get released one at a time, so as not to overwhelm the list with a single type of work.
This is something that Distributed Proofreaders and Project Gutenberg have run into MANY times. It is undoubted fact that many works out there have lapsed into the public domain because no one renewed the copyright... but it is painfully hard to PROVE it was never renewed because there is no easy central database to query.
If we had such a central database of copyright records, DP and PG would be growing by leaps and bounds with more up to date material instead of having to (mostly) stick to 1922 and earlier works.
There was a lot of internal contention about that "pay" site using the Gutenberg trademark. For the most part, the furor has died down, and as I understand it, for the most part, the World E-book library thing has given up use of the Gutenberg trademark and some checks and balances have been put in place to prevent the unilateral decision that led to that controversy.
Right now, we've got plenty of old math intensive books ready to move through the DP system. Because of ASCII terrible ability to handle equation formatting, we use TeX layout. The average DPer doesn't know TeX and it's a rather high learning curve to get started on. So, since Slashdot is full of self-professed geeks...all you TeX geeks should join up and help with the TeX formatted MATH texts. I've got plenty of books scanned and ready to go, so don't think you'll run us out of 'em any time soon!
We're getting there. It is surprising just how much work is require of getting a set "standard" in place for such a setup.
Currently, there is at least one effort to come up with a XHTML conformant standard (it has stalled somewhat due to summer volunteer burnout) and a TEI-lite conformant standard. The problem is getting a standard simple enough for the average lay person to remember it well enough to actually mark up texts, while complex enough to handle 99% of the texts we see.
As with all volunteer efforts, if you want to see it done, do it yourself!:)
In the example library you gave, it probably is just a simple matter of no volunteer currently providing scans is a member of that library. If you have the time and inclination, grab some of those wonderful sounding periodicals, a scanner and get to work. Head over to the DP forums and we'll all be glad to help you get started.
JHutch
And just look at America's overreaction [chron.com] to Subway having a little joke at your expense. So much for your supposed easy-going nature.
Please don't think anyone agrees with that nutjob. The most common reaction if someone started that line around here would be for the nearest person to smack him on the back of the head and say, "Oh, shut up!"
Everyone has their morons. Our morons are allowed to speak their minds...And then the rest of us that actually have a functioning brain cell ignore them as usual!
Agreed... but it is my understanding (which could be wrong) that is fairly hard to prove actions are not in the best interest of the company. Basically, you have to prove that management is consciously trying to tank the company and lining their own pockets.
Seems to me that anything short of something blatant (like your example) could be justified with the statement, "It is for the long term growth and benefit of the company."
A quick Google search shows the Blu-ray 1x spec at 36Mbps... So it's pretty fast. At that speed, the article I read said it would take about 2.5 hours to fill a single sided Blu-ray disk. I'm too lazy to double check the math.:)
But, Google already will have its 2.2 Billion dollars. How will it hurt the COMPANY to have the stock go down?
Now, I admit that EMPLOYEES will be hurt since any stock options they have would now be worth less. But the COMPANY? Seems like they could get away with ignoring Wall Streets short term howls and concentrate on the long term.
Maybe I'm missing something, but... Since they are only selling 9% of their total stock, in effect, they still have majority controlling interest in their own company and can, in effect, tell Wall Street to go stick it.
Slashdot Mirror
I must have went to unusual schools (Air Force brat, so I went to a ton of them), but NONE of them allowed us to use general encyclopedias as reference sources for any research beyond 2nd grade. (I did a series of "bug" reports in 2nd grade and basically copied the stuff out of the World Book Encyclopedia in my parent's living room.)
Real accountability is required to improve things ... but NOT from the teachers. If your kid isn't doing well in school, then YOU, the PARENT, are to blame.
... no where to be seen.
School is not a place you dump your kids for 12 years and then pick them up when they graduate! You are as responsible for your child's success and failure in school as the teachers! Heck, more so!
Go to a junior high parent/teacher night. Unless a child's parent was specifically "summoned" by the teacher, guess which parents will be there? That's right, the students' who are doing wonderfully. The parents that the teacher desperately needs to talk to, that desperately need to take more active role in their kids' education
And if the teachers do try to have a meeting with the parent, instead of trying to work out solutions, the parents will probably be defensive, trying to shift blame anywhere but on darling little Johnny!
Wake up, Johhny is acting like an ass, you ARE an ass, and the failure is not the school system. It is the parenting.
If you want to fix the school systems, make it as least as hard to have a child as it is to drive a car. Make people pass a frigging test proving they know what the hell they're doing!
It is relevant as an analogy.
The eye does read in a small "window." This small window is somewhat analogous to a cache.
Learning is said to be based somewhat on putting new concepts into the existing framework on already "known" data. For geeks, that often means putting new concepts into terms of computer processing.
JHutch
Only one MATH book is ever in the first round at any one time. Hilbert's book is that one right now.
The logic behind this is simple. Most of our volunteers avoid these books like the plague and if we kept releasing new ones, pretty soon the entire first round would be only MATH books.
To see what's waiting in the queue for English language math books, see here. For Languages Other Than English (LOTE) math books, see here.
Once you login to the site, you'll see all the books currently in the first round. The only MATH book currently in first round is Hilbert's "Foundations of Geometry." There are quite a few books, in English and other languages, waiting in the wings. They get released one at a time, so as not to overwhelm the list with a single type of work.
Many, many others.
This is something that Distributed Proofreaders and Project Gutenberg have run into MANY times. It is undoubted fact that many works out there have lapsed into the public domain because no one renewed the copyright... but it is painfully hard to PROVE it was never renewed because there is no easy central database to query.
If we had such a central database of copyright records, DP and PG would be growing by leaps and bounds with more up to date material instead of having to (mostly) stick to 1922 and earlier works.
JHutch
Yeah! I'm one of the "several" that Jon's referring to. I got a real kick out of recent book that was posted by us to PG...
Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living
For a turn of the century study of sex (published 1919), this guy was amazingly (IMHO) progressive! A very fun read! JHutchThere was a lot of internal contention about that "pay" site using the Gutenberg trademark. For the most part, the furor has died down, and as I understand it, for the most part, the World E-book library thing has given up use of the Gutenberg trademark and some checks and balances have been put in place to prevent the unilateral decision that led to that controversy.
Right now, we've got plenty of old math intensive books ready to move through the DP system. Because of ASCII terrible ability to handle equation formatting, we use TeX layout. The average DPer doesn't know TeX and it's a rather high learning curve to get started on. So, since Slashdot is full of self-professed geeks...all you TeX geeks should join up and help with the TeX formatted MATH texts. I've got plenty of books scanned and ready to go, so don't think you'll run us out of 'em any time soon!
JHutch
We're getting there. It is surprising just how much work is require of getting a set "standard" in place for such a setup.
Currently, there is at least one effort to come up with a XHTML conformant standard (it has stalled somewhat due to summer volunteer burnout) and a TEI-lite conformant standard. The problem is getting a standard simple enough for the average lay person to remember it well enough to actually mark up texts, while complex enough to handle 99% of the texts we see.
It ain't easy!
JHutch
As with all volunteer efforts, if you want to see it done, do it yourself! :)
In the example library you gave, it probably is just a simple matter of no volunteer currently providing scans is a member of that library. If you have the time and inclination, grab some of those wonderful sounding periodicals, a scanner and get to work. Head over to the DP forums and we'll all be glad to help you get started.
JHutch
It's ok. We still love you, man!
JHutch
Please don't think anyone agrees with that nutjob. The most common reaction if someone started that line around here would be for the nearest person to smack him on the back of the head and say, "Oh, shut up!"
Everyone has their morons. Our morons are allowed to speak their minds...And then the rest of us that actually have a functioning brain cell ignore them as usual!
The blu-ray specs are currently at the 1x level, but there are plans for 2x in the works (72Mbps) and theoretical plans for 8x or more (288Mbps).
Agreed... but it is my understanding (which could be wrong) that is fairly hard to prove actions are not in the best interest of the company. Basically, you have to prove that management is consciously trying to tank the company and lining their own pockets.
Seems to me that anything short of something blatant (like your example) could be justified with the statement, "It is for the long term growth and benefit of the company."
A quick Google search shows the Blu-ray 1x spec at 36Mbps... So it's pretty fast. At that speed, the article I read said it would take about 2.5 hours to fill a single sided Blu-ray disk. I'm too lazy to double check the math. :)
But, Google already will have its 2.2 Billion dollars. How will it hurt the COMPANY to have the stock go down?
Now, I admit that EMPLOYEES will be hurt since any stock options they have would now be worth less. But the COMPANY? Seems like they could get away with ignoring Wall Streets short term howls and concentrate on the long term.
... you walked up hill both ways to school, through blinding snowstorms... blah blah blah. Congratulations, grandpa, you're an old fart!
Maybe I'm missing something, but ... Since they are only selling 9% of their total stock, in effect, they still have majority controlling interest in their own company and can, in effect, tell Wall Street to go stick it.