Is this showing in the greater Seattle area at all? It's not on the KCTS website, even when I searched through May. The Tacoma station doesn't seem to have it either, and OPB (Oregon) won't show it until April 23rd, and then at two in the afternoon. Anyone know?
I agree! This has a striking resemblance to the 'coallition' that SUN belongs to. The 'coallition' are the group of companies whining to the DOJ to sue Microsoft because MS is too successfull.
What happend? Was Sun worried that it could no longer compete, so instead of folding, they push lawsuits.
I'm not quite sure why you're bringing this up here, but I'll respond to it anyways. The RIAA, which the poster to whom you're replying claimed (probably correctly) is suing because it can no longer compete, is in no way analogous to SUN or the "coalltion" [sic] involved in the Microsoft anti-trust trial. Rather, there are some striking parallels between the RIAA and MS - both hold a monopoly in their fields, and both are pursuing/have pursued questionable (read: possibly illegal) tactics to keep said monopoly. Just as the RIAA may feel it can no longer compete against MP3s, MS felt that it might be in deep trouble if forced to compete with Netscape/Java/platform independent programs. Read the FoF, please.
What is even more sad is that AOL (who is also apart of the whining coalltion) is gobbling up all these different companies and becoming a very huge internet/media company, but Janet Reno and her henchmen are so quiet about it. Isn't AOL engaging in uncompetitive practices by now (pending merger approval) controlling a large stake in all media?
According to past interpretations of the applicable laws (Sherman Act and others), simply having a large market share does not a monopoly make, and even having a monopoly does not equate to breaking the law. It's what you do with it that matters, like leveraging that monopoly to gain market share in other areas. "Anticompetitive practices" means just that: doing things, not merely being.
(Posted at Score: 2 to be at the same level as the parent. Sorry for off-topicness.)
And for those who are too lazy to cut/paste, click here. The most recent news is at the bottom of the page; the old stuff is interesting, though.
BTW, Coming Attractions is a much better site for movie rumors/news than AICN, IMHO. It's better organized and usually more informative, with (slightly) more accurate spelling. CA also tells you how much faith to put in certain rumors. Here's the main page framed or not framed, and the current "X-Men" movie page is here. Enjoy!
The Australians waiting to die...
on
End of the World
·
· Score: 3
are in "On The Beach" by Nevil Shute, for anyone who doesn't know. There's also the crew of a US nuclear sub that happens to be deep underwater when the bombs begin to fly. Good book; I had to read it for school about eight years ago and it made quite an impression.
I'm going to school about an hour north of Seattle (WWU); our student body has a high percentage of hippies, although not as much as The Evergreen State College (south of Seattle). Accordingly, there have been signs up for several months now (possibly as long as a year) about the WTO conference, and many students are down in Seattle for the protest. I think there was even a University-sponsored bus, but that may be later this week. I've been watching the news all afternoon and many of my neighbors are in contact with friends who are in the middle of it.
Most of the protestors are non-violent, intelligent, and well-intentioned. However, a few are not, and they're the ones doing the damage. Apparently the looting, etc., this afternoon was done almost entirely by a small group (30 or so) of anarchists who dressed all in black and didn't even show their faces. The real protestors tried to stop them, knowing the damage they'd do to the protest. The few hundred people who intentionally broke curfew are mostly just doing it to defy authority because it's authority. Again, this is only three or four hundred out of 20,000+.
As a sidenote to one of the reports on the radio, they mentioned that many of the delegates conversed with the protestors outside the convention center (as they couldn't get in). Both sides actually talked about issues and explained why they were there. That's the news that should have come out of today, not the violence and looting and burning and such. But human nature being what it is, a small group had to ruin it for everyone.
BTW, there's a rumor here that this anarchy group has stolen a petroleum truck and plans to wreak havoc with it tomorrow - anyone else hear this? Is it just someone's imagination, or real?
Just ramblings from another annoyed Washington State college student...
I live in the Pacific Northwest (U.S.), where clear skies are rare and fleeting at any time of the year. Last winter this area had something like 90 straight days of rain. At the moment, the sky is clear but there's about a 95% chance we'll have clouds by tonight. I would love to see the Leonids, but I have no way to control the weather. Even if I could, the shower is likely to be much weaker on this side of the world than it is in Europe or even the East Coast; like most, I don't have the resources to travel that far just to see a light show. My point: don't tell someone off just because he wants to watch the meteor shower through whatever means possible. A video of it is better than nothing at all.
(Of course, if the sky is anything close to clear (ie not actually raining), I'll be out in the nearest open and away from lights area hoping for a show!)
I am not an expert, but the Archaeology course I'm taking just finished dealing with dating methods and I have lots of notes and texts to refer to. I also have a chemistry background, so I'm pretty sure I understand this. If anyone wants to correct me, feel free.
C-14 dating is only accurate before about 1600 AD, but it's not because the ratio hasn't changed enough. The reason is inherent in the method, which is based on the decay process of a radioactive isotope of carbon (C-14, naturally). The ratio of C-14 to C-12 occurs at the same level worldwide at any given time and is maintained within living organisms. After an organism's death, it ceases to exchange carbon with its environment and thus contains a given level of C-14. This C-14 gradually decays at a constant rate - the half-life is now estimated at 5730 years. Dating is accomplished by measuring the current level of C-14 in a sample in the present and comparing it to the amount it contained at death (known as a percentage of total carbon). Algebra gives us an age.
The problem is that while the decay rate is constant over long periods of time, it's extremely random over shorter spans. So there would be a large error in dates from a sample of, say, George Washington's hair because not enough C-14 has decayed to even out the hills and valleys. Also, there is inherent error assiciated with the process; most current radiocarbon dates have an error of +-80 or 100 years (depending on the measuring process and lab). This gives 67% probability of being within that range; for 95%, one must give an error of +-160 or 200 years. So a date of 1600 AD (+-160 for 95% probability) would be essentially useless. (Yeah, the body died between 1440 and 1760. Aren't you glad you paid thousands for that knowledge?)
Also, in specific response to this comment, old wood samples cannot be dated to within "a few weeks" unless you have extremely accurate records to work with, and then radiocarbon can tell you age to only within a few decades (my book says the most accurate [most expensive] methods can give +-20 years). And we now know that the ratio of C-14 to normal carbon in the atmosphere has varied widely over the past few thousand years. We can give calibrated dates by dating the inner rings of Very Old trees which have been absolutely dated. My book says that anything more than 9000 to 10000 years old cannot be accurately calibrated at this time.
So next time you see a radiocarbon date of 30,000 years ago, remember that it's in radiocarbon years, not calendar years, and the two should not be confused.
Way more than you wanted or needed to know, I'm sure.
So I listened to this week's show then checked out the poll page to see whether CowboyNeal still had only 3%. Oddly enough, the stats showed him in the lead at 28% (9027 votes to 8909) instead!
First I thought all the Geeks in Space listeners had voted for him as instructed. Then I noticed that the percentages didn't quite look right. After some adding, my conclusion: someone decided CowboyNeal needed a little "help" and donated 8000 extra votes that aren't counted in the total.
Isn't this going a little far to become a muppet?;-)
I was reading his "uninstall" as meaning "using the utilities that come with the OS", not "searching the internet for something to do it." I was not aware of 98lite or what it does - it looks like a good program, thanks for letting me know. However, my argument still stands; running it will "break" Windows in that you'll be unable to use Windows Update (which is needed for security, if nothing else).
one question, is it so hard to uninstall IE after installing/running windows? i admit it might be a little harder for a newbie to do this, but thats what its all about, learning.
Um... You didn't bother to read the FoF, did you? And you must not have been following the trial very closely, either, and can't possibly have tried to uninstall IE in Win98. Because if you'd done any of these things, you would know that it's impossible.
One of the major points of the trial, and thus the FoF, is that MS has removed the ability to uninstall IE in Win98, including not offering it as an option in the Add/Remove programs dialogue. Go ahead, try it yourself. Also, it's impossible to use Windows Update without IE. And WU is necessary to fix all of the bugs, security holes, and other detritus that comes with being a Windows user. MS' contention that the browser is integrated into the OS was proven false by the program a professor of some kind was able to write to remove it. Why can't other people write such a program? Well, he was only able to because he had access the Windows source code.
Please, in the future, read the relevant material before making comments. Ignorance like this simply worsens the signal to noise ratio for the rest of us. Most people on/. already know these things and, I'm sure, resent the repetition. If I've gotten anything wrong, though, feel free to correct me.
Although the possibilities would be endless, and the mind does indeed boggle, unfortunately the standardized testing types are one step ahead. There's a laundry list of things one can't have on one's calculator, and IR is usually one of them. I believe they also usually specifically ban pen input devices (depending on the test).
I was bored enough to check out the SAT website (the classic "standardized test") and found their calculator policies for 98-99:
Any four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator is permitted. Excludes minicomputers, electronic writing pads (Newton), pocket organizers, models with QWERTY (i.e., typewriter) keyboards (TI-92 and HP-95), models with paper tapes, models that make noise or "talk," and models that require an electrical outlet.
Newton?!? Well, I imagine that covers a Palm as well, under either "minicomputer" or "electronic writing pad" (or possibly "pocket organizer").
Using "they" as an indefinite singular pronoun is one of my pet peeves. The rule I was given: Pick one and use it for any single indefinite person/animal/it; it doesn't matter which, but *be consistent*. So when I refer to two or more people/etc. of indefinite sex, I try to go half he, half she. You can't refer to one person as both he and she, though.
The MSNBC reporter obviously didn't check his (?) facts; from the article's phrasing, I assumed the perpetrator was male and most others would as well.
Feel free to moderate this whole discussion down...
I don't know what others do, but I used to switch back and forth quite easily depending on to whom I was speaking and the situation. I was in a French Immersion elementary school in B.C. (before moving to the US, where no such program exists). In the classroom we all spoke French constantly but as soon as recess started we would speak English with the exact same people (except the teacher). However, if one of the English speaking administrators came into the classroom, we would be in English "mode" again.
Sometimes, even now nine years later, I still can think of a word in French before I can think of it in English.
On the overall topic of a metalanguage: I'm familiar with Chomsky's theory of a universal grammar and if we could reconstruct that grammar, a metalanguage would be possible to create and implement. However, without a good understanding of the universal grammar, it would seem to be nearly impossible. We're too set in our individual grammatical tracks to fully understand those of other languages. That's one reason why teaching small children multiple languages is so successful: their internal grammar is not yet completely rigid.
Of course, the obvious extension of this arguement is that only a small child could invent a true metalanguage. Imagine the possibilities...:P
Although 10 seems on the low end of the bell curve, he would probably benefit from it. I first read "Ender's Game" during 8th grade (at 13.3 yrs or so), and I wish I'd read it earlier. The shift in perspective it began shaped most of my high school years. It helped me to realize that this wasn't going to last forever, that eventually I would find a place that needed me for my skills/self just as Ender eventually finds a place where he's needed. I doubt I would have done anything extreme, like commit suicide or shoot up my school, without "Ender's Game," but I probably would have lapsed into clinical depression and might have dropped out.
This realization meant, instead, that I didn't take the social pressures of high school as seriously. So the popular cliques don't like me; I'll never see them again as they go on with their fulfilling-for-them-but-certainly-not-me lives. So someone's resentful that I got a higher score on a test; that's their issue, not mine. The friends I found didn't necessarily share my interests, but they did share my perspective.
FYI, the original short story was also called "Ender's Game" (I'm 95% sure of this). "Maps in a Mirror" is the best single-author anthology I've read - find it if possible. However, it's around 1000 pages hardcover, so... You can probably also find the short story in an anthology of Hugo (?) award winners from the year it was published - late 1970s, I think. I know it won an award, probably the John C. Campbell award, which I believe is affiliated with the Hugo, though I'm not sure of any of that.
There is, however, a book called "Ender's War"; it's "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" bound in one volume, published sometime in the 1980s. I found it in Powell's City of Books a few weeks ago but didn't buy it (I wish I had, to complete my Ender collection with this obscurity). I don't know if it's still available.
If you want another review of "Ender's Game" the novel, I wrote an epinion (silly name) which you can find at Epinions.com. I think it's pretty interesting, but...
Nope, unlike Trix it's not just for kids. Depending on whom you ask, between ten and twenty-five percent of kids with ADHD "grow out" of it. But the vast majority of us will have to deal with it our whole lives. Also, the tendency is that later diagnosis = higher IQ, although that's by no means universal. (I think that's why so many computer geeks - those who really do act like they have ADHD - aren't diagnosed; their natural talents/abilities mask the symptoms. "How could someone so smart have a disorder?" "I thought only dumb people could have ADHD!" "But you're an adult, only kids have that!")
If you think it's a real possibility, type "Adult ADHD" into your favorite search engine and see what you find...
First, thank you very much for mentioning that book! I read it a while ago and couldn't remember the title/author recently when I tried to recommend it. Very good book.
I thought until about a year ago that I was mildly OCD and borderline ADHD as well; I can focus on something more intensely than anyone I know, I'm an extreme perfectionist, I'm sensitive to things being out of place, I sort my M&Ms and Skittles, etc. Then I found out what the real cause was: I have ADHD, and rather severely as well; some symptoms can be similar to OCD. Despite the fact that I am female, I tested off the charts for hyperactivity for my age. This late diagnosis came because of a misunderstanding of ADHD.
ADHD is very badly named. It is not a disorder. I do many things much better because of my ADHD, and I'm very happy I have it. It also is not necessarily "Attention Deficit" - it's more the inability to regulate attention properly. I can read a book or work on a webpage for hours without noticing the time or taking a break. But I can't sit through five minutes of a boring class without tuning out or fidgeting. Someone in another thread mentioned that he fidgets a lot; this can be a sign of adult ADHD. However, some people with ADHD, particularly girls, aren't hyper at all; they can even seem lethargic and spacey.
Why does it matter? Well, I was diagnosed halfway through my senior year of HS. I'd been taking honors (IB) courses as well as college classes but with a 2.4 GPA. My final semester of HS, my GPA was over 3.0 for the first time ever. Medication was part of the solution, but knowing how to take advantage of my "disorder" was just as important. If I hadn't been diagnosed, I am sure I would've been fired from my summer job. Instead, they've asked me to keep working for them during college. Some of you have good jobs, good lives, few problems. For those who don't, this may be one of the reasons.
If you want a good summary of ADHD, try http://www.add.org/content/interview/peter.htm or the parent site, http://www.add.org/ - all kinds of good stuff. I also recommend the book "Driven to Distraction" by Dr. Edward Hallowell; some of the information is slightly outdated, but it has more information on, and sample cases of, adult ADHD than any other I've found.
Sorry about the too much information post; my late diagnosis and the problems it caused make me want to inform people who have been misinformed, like I was.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure it does. I guess. Maybe. (Who writes the rules on these things, anyways?) So that makes three of us female listeners. Any more around?
What happend? Was Sun worried that it could no longer compete, so instead of folding, they push lawsuits.
I'm not quite sure why you're bringing this up here, but I'll respond to it anyways. The RIAA, which the poster to whom you're replying claimed (probably correctly) is suing because it can no longer compete, is in no way analogous to SUN or the "coalltion" [sic] involved in the Microsoft anti-trust trial. Rather, there are some striking parallels between the RIAA and MS - both hold a monopoly in their fields, and both are pursuing/have pursued questionable (read: possibly illegal) tactics to keep said monopoly. Just as the RIAA may feel it can no longer compete against MP3s, MS felt that it might be in deep trouble if forced to compete with Netscape/Java/platform independent programs. Read the FoF, please.
What is even more sad is that AOL (who is also apart of the whining coalltion) is gobbling up all these different companies and becoming a very huge internet/media company, but Janet Reno and her henchmen are so quiet about it. Isn't AOL engaging in uncompetitive practices by now (pending merger approval) controlling a large stake in all media?
According to past interpretations of the applicable laws (Sherman Act and others), simply having a large market share does not a monopoly make, and even having a monopoly does not equate to breaking the law. It's what you do with it that matters, like leveraging that monopoly to gain market share in other areas. "Anticompetitive practices" means just that: doing things, not merely being.
(Posted at Score: 2 to be at the same level as the parent. Sorry for off-topicness.)
BTW, Coming Attractions is a much better site for movie rumors/news than AICN, IMHO. It's better organized and usually more informative, with (slightly) more accurate spelling. CA also tells you how much faith to put in certain rumors. Here's the main page framed or not framed, and the current "X-Men" movie page is here. Enjoy!
are in "On The Beach" by Nevil Shute, for anyone who doesn't know. There's also the crew of a US nuclear sub that happens to be deep underwater when the bombs begin to fly. Good book; I had to read it for school about eight years ago and it made quite an impression.
Most of the protestors are non-violent, intelligent, and well-intentioned. However, a few are not, and they're the ones doing the damage. Apparently the looting, etc., this afternoon was done almost entirely by a small group (30 or so) of anarchists who dressed all in black and didn't even show their faces. The real protestors tried to stop them, knowing the damage they'd do to the protest. The few hundred people who intentionally broke curfew are mostly just doing it to defy authority because it's authority. Again, this is only three or four hundred out of 20,000+.
As a sidenote to one of the reports on the radio, they mentioned that many of the delegates conversed with the protestors outside the convention center (as they couldn't get in). Both sides actually talked about issues and explained why they were there. That's the news that should have come out of today, not the violence and looting and burning and such. But human nature being what it is, a small group had to ruin it for everyone.
BTW, there's a rumor here that this anarchy group has stolen a petroleum truck and plans to wreak havoc with it tomorrow - anyone else hear this? Is it just someone's imagination, or real?
Just ramblings from another annoyed Washington State college student...
(Of course, if the sky is anything close to clear (ie not actually raining), I'll be out in the nearest open and away from lights area hoping for a show!)
C-14 dating is only accurate before about 1600 AD, but it's not because the ratio hasn't changed enough. The reason is inherent in the method, which is based on the decay process of a radioactive isotope of carbon (C-14, naturally). The ratio of C-14 to C-12 occurs at the same level worldwide at any given time and is maintained within living organisms. After an organism's death, it ceases to exchange carbon with its environment and thus contains a given level of C-14. This C-14 gradually decays at a constant rate - the half-life is now estimated at 5730 years. Dating is accomplished by measuring the current level of C-14 in a sample in the present and comparing it to the amount it contained at death (known as a percentage of total carbon). Algebra gives us an age.
The problem is that while the decay rate is constant over long periods of time, it's extremely random over shorter spans. So there would be a large error in dates from a sample of, say, George Washington's hair because not enough C-14 has decayed to even out the hills and valleys. Also, there is inherent error assiciated with the process; most current radiocarbon dates have an error of +-80 or 100 years (depending on the measuring process and lab). This gives 67% probability of being within that range; for 95%, one must give an error of +-160 or 200 years. So a date of 1600 AD (+-160 for 95% probability) would be essentially useless. (Yeah, the body died between 1440 and 1760. Aren't you glad you paid thousands for that knowledge?)
Also, in specific response to this comment, old wood samples cannot be dated to within "a few weeks" unless you have extremely accurate records to work with, and then radiocarbon can tell you age to only within a few decades (my book says the most accurate [most expensive] methods can give +-20 years). And we now know that the ratio of C-14 to normal carbon in the atmosphere has varied widely over the past few thousand years. We can give calibrated dates by dating the inner rings of Very Old trees which have been absolutely dated. My book says that anything more than 9000 to 10000 years old cannot be accurately calibrated at this time.
So next time you see a radiocarbon date of 30,000 years ago, remember that it's in radiocarbon years, not calendar years, and the two should not be confused.
Way more than you wanted or needed to know, I'm sure.
First I thought all the Geeks in Space listeners had voted for him as instructed. Then I noticed that the percentages didn't quite look right. After some adding, my conclusion: someone decided CowboyNeal needed a little "help" and donated 8000 extra votes that aren't counted in the total.
Isn't this going a little far to become a muppet? ;-)
I was reading his "uninstall" as meaning "using the utilities that come with the OS", not "searching the internet for something to do it." I was not aware of 98lite or what it does - it looks like a good program, thanks for letting me know. However, my argument still stands; running it will "break" Windows in that you'll be unable to use Windows Update (which is needed for security, if nothing else).
Um... You didn't bother to read the FoF, did you? And you must not have been following the trial very closely, either, and can't possibly have tried to uninstall IE in Win98. Because if you'd done any of these things, you would know that it's impossible.
One of the major points of the trial, and thus the FoF, is that MS has removed the ability to uninstall IE in Win98, including not offering it as an option in the Add/Remove programs dialogue. Go ahead, try it yourself. Also, it's impossible to use Windows Update without IE. And WU is necessary to fix all of the bugs, security holes, and other detritus that comes with being a Windows user. MS' contention that the browser is integrated into the OS was proven false by the program a professor of some kind was able to write to remove it. Why can't other people write such a program? Well, he was only able to because he had access the Windows source code.
Please, in the future, read the relevant material before making comments. Ignorance like this simply worsens the signal to noise ratio for the rest of us. Most people on /. already know these things and, I'm sure, resent the repetition. If I've gotten anything wrong, though, feel free to correct me.
I was bored enough to check out the SAT website (the classic "standardized test") and found their calculator policies for 98-99:
Newton?!? Well, I imagine that covers a Palm as well, under either "minicomputer" or "electronic writing pad" (or possibly "pocket organizer").
Way more info than you needed...
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films /details/chickenrun.html
Looks hilarious.
Using "they" as an indefinite singular pronoun is one of my pet peeves. The rule I was given: Pick one and use it for any single indefinite person/animal/it; it doesn't matter which, but *be consistent*. So when I refer to two or more people/etc. of indefinite sex, I try to go half he, half she. You can't refer to one person as both he and she, though.
The MSNBC reporter obviously didn't check his (?) facts; from the article's phrasing, I assumed the perpetrator was male and most others would as well.
Feel free to moderate this whole discussion down...
I don't know what others do, but I used to switch back and forth quite easily depending on to whom I was speaking and the situation. I was in a French Immersion elementary school in B.C. (before moving to the US, where no such program exists). In the classroom we all spoke French constantly but as soon as recess started we would speak English with the exact same people (except the teacher). However, if one of the English speaking administrators came into the classroom, we would be in English "mode" again.
:P
Sometimes, even now nine years later, I still can think of a word in French before I can think of it in English.
On the overall topic of a metalanguage: I'm familiar with Chomsky's theory of a universal grammar and if we could reconstruct that grammar, a metalanguage would be possible to create and implement. However, without a good understanding of the universal grammar, it would seem to be nearly impossible. We're too set in our individual grammatical tracks to fully understand those of other languages. That's one reason why teaching small children multiple languages is so successful: their internal grammar is not yet completely rigid.
Of course, the obvious extension of this arguement is that only a small child could invent a true metalanguage. Imagine the possibilities...
This realization meant, instead, that I didn't take the social pressures of high school as seriously. So the popular cliques don't like me; I'll never see them again as they go on with their fulfilling-for-them-but-certainly-not-me lives. So someone's resentful that I got a higher score on a test; that's their issue, not mine. The friends I found didn't necessarily share my interests, but they did share my perspective.
Yet another ramble from Abigail
There is, however, a book called "Ender's War"; it's "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" bound in one volume, published sometime in the 1980s. I found it in Powell's City of Books a few weeks ago but didn't buy it (I wish I had, to complete my Ender collection with this obscurity). I don't know if it's still available.
If you want another review of "Ender's Game" the novel, I wrote an epinion (silly name) which you can find at Epinions.com. I think it's pretty interesting, but...
Abigail
Nope, unlike Trix it's not just for kids. Depending on whom you ask, between ten and twenty-five percent of kids with ADHD "grow out" of it. But the vast majority of us will have to deal with it our whole lives. Also, the tendency is that later diagnosis = higher IQ, although that's by no means universal. (I think that's why so many computer geeks - those who really do act like they have ADHD - aren't diagnosed; their natural talents/abilities mask the symptoms. "How could someone so smart have a disorder?" "I thought only dumb people could have ADHD!" "But you're an adult, only kids have that!")
If you think it's a real possibility, type "Adult ADHD" into your favorite search engine and see what you find...
Abigail
I thought until about a year ago that I was mildly OCD and borderline ADHD as well; I can focus on something more intensely than anyone I know, I'm an extreme perfectionist, I'm sensitive to things being out of place, I sort my M&Ms and Skittles, etc. Then I found out what the real cause was: I have ADHD, and rather severely as well; some symptoms can be similar to OCD. Despite the fact that I am female, I tested off the charts for hyperactivity for my age. This late diagnosis came because of a misunderstanding of ADHD.
ADHD is very badly named. It is not a disorder. I do many things much better because of my ADHD, and I'm very happy I have it. It also is not necessarily "Attention Deficit" - it's more the inability to regulate attention properly. I can read a book or work on a webpage for hours without noticing the time or taking a break. But I can't sit through five minutes of a boring class without tuning out or fidgeting. Someone in another thread mentioned that he fidgets a lot; this can be a sign of adult ADHD. However, some people with ADHD, particularly girls, aren't hyper at all; they can even seem lethargic and spacey.
Why does it matter? Well, I was diagnosed halfway through my senior year of HS. I'd been taking honors (IB) courses as well as college classes but with a 2.4 GPA. My final semester of HS, my GPA was over 3.0 for the first time ever. Medication was part of the solution, but knowing how to take advantage of my "disorder" was just as important. If I hadn't been diagnosed, I am sure I would've been fired from my summer job. Instead, they've asked me to keep working for them during college. Some of you have good jobs, good lives, few problems. For those who don't, this may be one of the reasons.
If you want a good summary of ADHD, try http://www.add.org/content/interview/peter.htm or the parent site, http://www.add.org/ - all kinds of good stuff. I also recommend the book "Driven to Distraction" by Dr. Edward Hallowell; some of the information is slightly outdated, but it has more information on, and sample cases of, adult ADHD than any other I've found.
Sorry about the too much information post; my late diagnosis and the problems it caused make me want to inform people who have been misinformed, like I was.
Abigail